I bought a Moleskine notebook a long time ago, and for a while it got zero use. My productivity system is totally digital and Web-based, as is my personal journal. I bought the Moleskine

Memory is not something you don’t have; it has little to do with genetics or environment. The problem has never been that we have “faulty” equipment; that our brains are broken or don’t work.  The problem has always been awareness.  We haven’t been taught how to properly use our brains.  For most people, it’s a just…

No matter how well you set up your todo list and calendar, you aren’t going to get things done unless you have a reliable way of reminding yourself to actually do them. Anyone who’s spent an hour writing up the perfect grocery list, only to realize at the store that they forgot to…

One of the nicest things you can do for other people is make yourself easy to remember. Instead of burning their brains trying to recall who you are and what you stand for, a personal catchphrase is a elegant anchor to the rest…

Does this sound familiar? You’re slowly drifting off to sleep when you come up with a great line for the song or paper you’ve been working on all day. It’s such a great idea, in fact, that you just know you’ll remember it in the morning. Happy to have finally come up with the perfect…

Our memory is one of the integral parts of day-to-day human life. We’re using it every moment, consciously or not, as we perceive the world and interpret it based on our memories and experiences, or as we look for the car keys, trying to recall where, exactly, was the last place they were seen? It’s…

I read lots of books. I follow several blogs. I take classes. I’ve learned enough new information I want to incorporate into my work that I know I haven’t got a chance of remembering it all. There have been times that all that information consumption has felt like a waste, because the human brain just…

A few weeks ago I wrote a post on note-taking skills. One common experience many people have, and that several people mentioned in response to that post, is that when they take good notes they remember things well enough that they rarely end up having to look at their notes again. In fact, it…

Matthew Leitch, a psychologist from the University College London, became fed up with some myths surrounding memory and wrote these 7 myths. You may have read a few articles about some of them, such as the 7+/-2 rule and using imagery to remember lists. If you still think it might make sense try remembering a…

Dean Hunt at RetiredAt21 has written a summary of what’s known as ‘stacking’ for memorizing. You may have come across a similar story, but Dean recalls one of a college student who memorized the first 7 chapters of a textbook [23,000 words] and aced his test. Similar to the Visual Memory Stack, this method requires…

What was the last phone number you remembered off the top of your head? Like me, you may only remember certain numbers after using them over and over; and even then you can only keep a select number of those on call. This interesting Instructable introduces the idea of substituting consonant sounds for numbers. There are…

The brain is a tangled web of information. We don’t remember single facts, but instead we interlink everything by association. Anytime we experience a new event, our brains tie the sights, smells, sounds and our own impressions together into a new relationship. Our brain remembers things by repetition, association, visual imagery, and all five senses. By…

A goal for many people, learning a foreign language isn’t easy and it only gets harder the older you get, they say. Our good friends at MindTools have another great How To, this time helping out the FL Learners out there. If you’re starting out, or an intermediate in a language, these are some great tips…

Everyone wants to have a photographic memory. Having a good memory can help you professionally or personally. You could have better memory as well, by doing extra miles physically and mentally. WikiHow introduces ways to improve your memory – one step at a time: Keep your brain active Exercise daily Reduce stress Eat well and eat right Take better pictures Give…

I’ve gone and lost my second USB stick. In the first case, the stick had some documents pertaining to my company’s business. Nothing damning, and nothing especially illegal, but annoying to lose and imagine out there in the wild. Oh, not to mention that it had a personal journal written in straight text that I’m…