7 Days of Fast, Festive (& Freezing) Memory Challenges
These quick daily challenges can brighten your mind, even with the busiest of holiday schedules…
While the holidays may be a time of year we tend to put our work aside, we think you’ll consider these mental challenges anything but labor! Try out these simple and seasonal opportunities to improve your recall abilities, and to tie some extra bright neural connections into your winter experience.
A few suggestions before you dive in:
Aim to set aside a few minutes at the same time each day (approximately) to engage in these memory-strengthening exercises.
Keep a notebook or journal to keep track of your progress and to help you celebrate your consistency.
Share the challenge with a friend! Research shows that those who engage in collaborative learning remember more information for longer periods of time! And while research failed to measure the fun factor, we’re guessing they probably enjoy the experience a bit more too!
Let’s get started…
Day 1
Set a timer for 1-2 minutes, and write down all the words you can think of that are “cold” (i.e., ice, snowflake, December, north pole, my sisters heart…hahaha). Count how many words you wrote down, and carry on with your day!
Day 2
Using the list you wrote on day 1, give yourself 2-3 minutes to commit as many words from the list as possible to memory using the Chunking Technique (mentally placing words in groups by category, i.e. animals, places, foods, etc.) OR by word length (short, middle, long). Tip: set a timer every few hours to recall and repeat the list to the best of your ability.
Day 3
Working from your memory of your list from Challenges #1 and 2 (and without looking at the written list), try to write down as many words as you can recall from the list in alphabetical order.
Day 4
Below is a list of five of the worlds coldest cities. Use an acronym to commit these cities (don’t worry about the country…yet) to your memory, in any order!
A few well-known Acronyms include, S.C.U.B.A. (Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus), A.W.O.L. (Absent Without Leave) and T.G.I.F (Thank Goodness It’s Friday).
Murmansk, Russia
Erzurum, Turkey
Saskatoon, Canada
Fairbanks, United States of America
Astana, Kazakhstan
After you create an acronym that works for you, set a timer to rehearse the cities using your acronym at a regular interval during the day! Repetition is a KEY to memory!
Day 5
Can you use an Acrostic to memorize the countries that house the chilly cities listed above?
To create an acrostic, list the first letters of the terms to be memorized in the order in which you want to learn them (like the planet names). Then create a sentence or phrase using words that start with those letters.
Russia
Turkey
Canada
USA
Kazakhstan
Day 6
Set a timer for 1 minute. Write down as many pieces of cold-weather clothing that you can think of.
Count your list, and try to commit as many to memory using chunking, acronyms, or acrostics. Aim to recall as many as possible at a regular interval through the day.
Day 7
It’s time to put your memory to the test!
Write down (without peeking at your previous day’s work):
As many items from your list from day 1 as you can remember.
The Acronym you created on day 4, and all of the cities it stands for.
The Acrostic you created on day 5, and each country your words represent.
As many animals from day 6 (yesterday) as you can remember, referencing the memory retention strategy you chose to use.
Great work! Time to warm up by the fire and celebrate your full week of recall, retention, and good old fashioned memorization.
In case you’re wondering, “what is the use of memorizing these random lists of words… I don’t need to remember them!” be reminded that every time you challenge your brain to learn new things, to recall words on demand, and to apply new memory retention strategies, you enhance your brain by creating new neural connections and strengthening those you already have. Not to mention, you are actively developing a new set of memory retention strategies for future use.
With exercises such as those you completed this week, you not only build up your cognitive reserve, but you also develop your mind and your memory to better recall those items that you truly WANT to remember…the names, places, directions, and moments… all of the ingredients to your memorable life!
Stay tuned for another week of speedy and savory memory challenges soon!