Improving Your Memory in Just Minutes a Day
Apple
Banana
Carrot
Doughnuts
Eggplant
Fig
Green Pepper
Habañero Pepper
Iceberg Lettuce
Jalapeño Pepper
In the morning, take a few minutes and write down a list of ten items, using the first ten letters of the alphabet as shown above. You can use a theme (such as food) or not. When starting out, it may be easier to use a theme though.
Once you’ve written them down, read them over a few times and memorize them. Keep the paper in a safe place at home–don’t take it with you to work or school.
At lunch time, try to remember the ten items, writing them down if you wish.
When you get home, try to recall the items again, writing them down if you want. Then, check against the actual list and see how well you did. You can do this right when you get home, or after dinner or at bedtime.
Do this daily, changing the items each day. Once you are able to recall the ten items daily with regularity, start increasing the difficulty. If you have been using groups of items in a theme (such as food, animals, kitchen items, etc.), use a group of random items instead.
Once you have mastered that, begin adding more items to the list each day. Once you can get through all the letters of the alphabet, that will be great!
And, once you are able to recall 26 items with frequent success, stop using the alphabet method. Just choose 26 items, no matter what letter with which they begin.
This exercise takes only minutes per day, but you will be amazed at the results, especially if you don’t think you’re good at remembering things.
After a time, you will be able to go to the grocery store, and you won’t have to check your list because you’ll remember everything you need to buy!



It was really interesting stumbling upon this today. I was just thinking that I’m too young to have my memory fading and I need to do something to improve my memory. Thanks for the tip!
Thanks for stopping by. I’m sure this exercise will help you!
[...] From Dan at DCR Blogs - Improving Your Memory in Just Minutes a Day [...]
I had a great comment ready in my head but now I’ve forgotten it.
See? Better start trying it out tomorrow morning.
[...] we can all improve our minds. We can learn to read with more comprehension and retention. We can learn to improve our memory. We can conquer our [...]
Haha, I do a similar thing (a chinese character that starts with the same phonetic sound going thru a-z) before I go to bed every night…it’s a meditation of sorts because usually I have a gazillion thoughts running through my head as I’m trying to fall asleep.
Well, yeah, but how far do you remember pi?
Hmmm. I have an idea…
[...] the next ten days, use the techniques mentioned in my Improving Your Memory in Just Minutes a Day post and see to how many digits you can memorize [...]
[...] From Dan at DCR Blogs - Improving Your Memory in Just Minutes a Day [...]