Three Robust Ways to Enhance Your Memory

Science-backed ways to train your brain and remember what you see.

Photo by sarandy westfall on Unsplash

You’ll forget 50% of everything you see within an hour, 70% within a day, and 90% within a week.

You’ve probably heard Francis Bacon’s famous saying: “knowledge is itself power.” But if that’s true, why do we let so much pass us by?

We’re living in a world of information overload. At any given moment, our brain is inundated with thousands of sensory inputs. From our phones, TVs, and social media feeds. Our minds can’t keep up with this flood; so it suppresses most material in an attempt to focus on what it deems important.

Unfortunately, what our mind deems “important” excludes valuable knowledge. So we forget our friend's birthday, our girlfriend's favorite color, or the answer to that exam question.

To make matters worse, 21st-century technology has made our brains lazy. With our phone and photo catalog at our fingertips, we don’t have to remember anything. This overreliance on external aids causes mental laziness.

We stop training our brains and memory recall. Like everything else, the less you practice, the worse you get. In the words of Neurologist Dan Kaufer:

“We’ve become so dependent on that external aid…