How to Improve Your Memory: What the Evidence Actually Supports

Rereading your notes until every line looks familiar feels like studying, yet a major review of study techniques rated it among the least useful. The techniques rated highest tend to make you work harder in the moment.

The evidence on how to improve memory points to a short list: pull information out of your head instead of putting it back in, spread that practice over days, and give new material meaning and your full attention. Sleep and regular activity help in the background, while notes and mnemonics carry what your head does not need to. In order, from the strongest evidence to the narrowest:

1. Test yourself, and space the tests out
2. Ask why new information is true
3. Give new material your full attention
4. Protect your sleep around learning
5. Stay physically active
6. Hand routine details to notes and reminders
7. Use a mnemonic for a fixed list

The stages every memory passes through have their own guide, the three stages of memory, from encoding to recall; this page ranks what you can do about them.

Prefer to watch? The video covers the same ground as this article.

VideoHow to Improve Your Memory: 7 Habits That Actually WorkWiserHours

Why the habits that improve memory feel harder

The best-tested ways to improve memory make you bring information back and spread your sessions out, which is slower going than rereading or cramming, the habits many students rely on. A 2013 review headed by John Dunlosky, a Kent State University psychologist in the US, rated testing yourself and spacing practice over time as the most useful learning techniques, and rated rereading and highlighting low.¹

Picture two colleagues preparing for a client call (a made-up example, not a study). One rereads the briefing three times and feels ready. The other reads it once, closes it, writes down the points she remembers and checks what she missed. Her session feels shakier, but it is the one the review backs, and any point that does not come back shows her what to study before the call.

The study

Strong evidence

Only two of ten study techniques earned the top rating

Five psychologists judged 10 common study techniques by whether each helps learners of different ages, with different material, on different tests and over long delays. Only 2, practice testing and distributed practice, were rated high utility. Three, including explaining why a fact is true, were rated moderate, and 5, including rereading and highlighting, were rated low. The authors declared no conflicts of interest.¹

The two winners are recalling material and spreading that recall out, while rereading and highlighting, the habits many students lean on, sit in the low group.

1. Rereading: feels fluent and familiar; rated low utility in a 2013 review of study techniques
2. Testing yourself, spaced over days: feels slower and harder; rated high utility in the same review

The research mostly involved students, so for adults at work the ratings are only a guide to what works.

How to improve memory in seven habits, best-supported first

These seven habits run from the strongest evidence for memory to narrow tools for specific jobs. The studies behind them tested each habit on its own, not as one program, so start with the one or two that fit your week.

1. Test yourself, and space the tests out

retrieval practiceretrieval practice: Learning by recalling material from memory, for example by quizzing yourself, instead of rereading it. Pulling information out makes it easier to recall later, a result also known as the testing effect.Full entry in the glossary, bringing information back from memory rather than rereading it, shares the top rating in the Dunlosky review, which found its benefits across many test formats, kinds of material, ages and delays; flashcards, practice questions and a blank page all count. Spacingdistributed practice: Spreading study or practice of the same material across several sessions with gaps between them, rather than cramming it into one. Also called spacing, it tends to give longer-lasting learning than the same time spent in a single block.Full entry in the glossary adds a schedule: spreading study over days rather than cramming it into one session helps memory over long delays, the review concludes.¹

Before a quarterly review, for example, instead of rereading last quarter’s figures the night before, write the key numbers from memory on Monday, check them, and do it again on Thursday. Each attempt shows what has faded while you can still fix it.

Recall first, check second, and come back after a gap of days. For how far apart to set the reviews, see these spacing schedules and self-testing methods for learners.

2. Ask why new information is true

Explaining to yourself why a fact is true, which researchers call elaborative interrogation, helps new facts stick by tying them to what you already know, the Dunlosky review reports. It rated the technique moderate because most tests used fact lists and short delays, and the benefit may be smaller for people new to a topic. In one early experiment the review describes, undergraduates prompted to explain why each man in a list of sentences did what he did later matched the men to their actions roughly twice as often as students who simply read the sentences.¹

At work, a colleague says the launch has moved to March because a supplier is late. Ask yourself which part of the launch depends on that supplier; the answer hooks the new date to something you already understand. A why-question takes seconds, so save it for facts you will need later.

3. Give new material your full attention

In lab tests, dividing your attention while you take something in costs far more memory than dividing it while you recall. In four 1996 lab experiments at the University of Toronto in Canada, a second task during learning brought large drops in memory, while the same task during recall brought small or no drops.²

In a 2013 Canadian study in a simulated university classroom, students who multitasked on a laptop during a lecture scored lower on a test of its content than non-multitaskers, and so did students seated in view of a multitasking classmate.³

Answer email through a meeting and you may leave with the gist but not the decisions. For anything you must remember, close the second screen while it is being said.

The techniques rated highest tend to make you work harder in the moment.

4. Protect your sleep around learning

Sleep matters on both sides of learning: two 2021 meta-analysesmeta-analysis: A study that combines the results of earlier studies on the same question into one overall estimate. Pooling makes the estimate more precise, but it cannot repair the studies it pools: a meta-analysis of surveys is still survey evidence.Full entry in the glossary of five decades of lab studies, by researchers at Royal Holloway, University of London in the UK, linked a full night without sleep before learning to worse memory for new material, and a night without sleep after learning to a smaller loss. They also reported signs of publication bias and many small studies, so the results show that a lost night hurts, not how much an extra hour helps.⁴

A red-eye flight with almost no sleep before a training day may cost twice: you take in less that day, and may keep less of what you learned the day before. If you control the timing, put the learning after a normal night. The routines that make a normal night more likely are set out in a guide to sleeping better on a busy schedule.

5. Stay physically active

WHO’s 2026 guideline on lowering the risk of dementia and cognitive decline strongly recommends physical activity for adults with normal thinking, to reduce their risk of cognitive decline, and rates the certainty of that evidence moderate. It promotes activity across all ages and abilities.⁵

For memory itself, the trials disagree. A 2025 University of South Australia umbrella review pooled reviews of randomized trials in all age groups and found a small benefit of exercise for memory, although most of the reviews it drew on received critically low quality ratings; the benefit still held when the authors set those weaker reviews aside.⁶ A 2023 umbrella review from Spain’s University of Granada, limited to healthy people, found a small benefit for thinking overall that became negligible after correcting for publication bias.⁷

So be active for the health benefits WHO describes and count any memory gain as a bonus. A walk between meetings is an easy start, and anyone with a health condition can ask their doctor what activity suits them.

6. Hand routine details to notes and reminders

Moving memory work into notes, calendars and reminders, which psychologists call cognitive offloadingcognitive offloading: Using something outside your head, such as a note, a calendar alert, a search engine or a chatbot, to cut the mental work a task needs. It usually helps you do the task, though you may remember less of what you handed over.Full entry in the glossary, improves performance across many tasks, concludes a 2016 review by two psychologists, Evan Risko (University of Waterloo, Canada) and Sam Gilbert (University College London, UK). People offload more when memory load rises or they are interrupted, the same conditions in which performance suffers without reminders. The trade-off is that you may come to remember where information is kept rather than the information itself.⁸

A calendar alert for a dental appointment frees your attention for the conversation you are in. Offload appointments, errands and reference details, and keep in your head what you need without looking it up.

Needed without lookingFine to look upUsed oftenUsed rarely

Used often, Needed without looking: Keep it in your headrecall it on a spaced schedule

Used often, Fine to look up: Offload, then let use teach ita note you check until you stop needing it

Used rarely, Needed without looking: Recall it before each usea quick self-test ahead of the day

Used rarely, Fine to look up: Offload itcalendar, list or reference note

7. Use a mnemonic for a fixed list

Mnemonics help with specific jobs, such as a fixed order of points or a set of foreign words, not with memory in general. The Dunlosky review rated one, the keyword mnemonic, low utility for everyday study because it takes time, suits only some material and may not produce lasting learning.¹

Reach for one when the exact items or their order matter, such as the sequence of a talk, and still practice recalling them. For matching a technique to a task, see which beginner mnemonic suits which job.

Memory habits for this week

• Close my notes and write down what I remember, then check
• Schedule a second recall a few days later
• Ask why for one new fact I need to keep
• Put the phone away while someone explains something I must remember
• Keep a normal night of sleep before a big learning day
• Add some physical activity to most days
• Move appointments and errands into a calendar or list

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Brain games and supplements promise more than they deliver

Brain-training games and memory supplements have the weakest support of the popular fixes. A 2016 review of the studies that brain-training companies cite found extensive evidence that training improves the trained tasks, and little that it improves distant tasks or everyday thinking.⁹ The large trials get a closer look in what brain-training trials found for daily memory.

Pills do no better. For people without an established vitamin deficiency, WHO’s 2026 guideline strongly recommends against taking vitamins B or E, omega-3 or multivitamins to protect against cognitive decline or dementia, and rates the certainty of that evidence moderate.⁵

Both appeal because they promise a better memory without effort. When a product claims to improve memory, look for a trial in people like you that measured everyday memory, not a score on the product’s own test. For protecting the brain over decades, see changeable dementia risk factors and what the trials show.

Myth

A daily pill or a brain game can sharpen an ordinary memory with little effort.

Fact

Brain games mostly improve the game itself, and WHO's 2026 guideline recommends against B, E, omega-3 or multivitamin pills to protect thinking unless you have a vitamin deficiency.

Where each habit stands on the evidence

The evidence ranges from reviews of many experiments to a disputed set of exercise trials. Most of it comes from students or lab tasks, so treat the ratings as pointers to where effort pays, not as measured results for your own memory.

If you change only one thing, start with the top row: close the page and recall before you reread.

When forgetfulness needs a doctor

Occasional lapses are common, but memory trouble that interferes with everyday routines deserves a doctor’s visit, and confusion that comes on suddenly is an emergency. The three levels below draw on WHO, with the UK’s NHS and US agencies as examples; check how your own health service words its advice.

• Now: sudden confusion in anyone calls for your local emergency number. The UK’s NHS, for instance, points people with sudden confusion to 999 or an A&E department and advises against driving yourself there.¹¹ If thoughts of suicide or self-harm arise, contact a crisis line or call your local emergency number. In the US, that line is 988, open around the clock for a phone call or a text.¹²
• Soon: book a doctor’s appointment when memory lapses start to disrupt ordinary days, or when an older relative seems more and more forgetful. Some causes are treatable, the NHS points out, among them stress, anxiety, depression and insomnia, and treatment may work better when it begins early.¹³ WHO’s list of early dementia signs includes losing your way on a walk or drive, confusion in places you know well, and difficulty following a conversation or finding the right word.¹⁴
• At your next appointment: the US National Institute on Aging regards mild forgetfulness as frequently part of normal aging, yet says noticeable memory changes are still worth mentioning to a doctor.¹⁵

The bottom line

The most reliable way to improve memory is also the least comfortable: close the notes, recall what you can, check it, and repeat a few days later. Asking why and paying full attention help new material get in, while sleep and activity support the rest. Spend less on pills and games, and bring memory changes that disrupt daily life to a doctor.