According to the website MPUG, we see more information packed into a single Sunday newspaper than a person in the 17th century would have seen throughout his or her lifetime. Add to that the information we glean from daily news sources, the internet, and simple networking in and out of work and the sum total of data becomes astronomical.

With all that information coming at us from every direction and a cultural lifestyle that tends to cause dispersion, how do we guard against forgetting what we need to remember?

Easy – here are some brilliant tools available on the web to help you increase your retention and improve access to what you have stored away.

Life Hacker has provided a countdown of their ten best memory hacks, from taking naps to using a device known as the “Palace Technique,” described here at Litemind. Their number one suggestion is to use SuperMemo, a Windows application available in both free and commercial versions that uses repetition to help you remember what you have learned.

According to Research Digest, a blog that provides reports on the latest psychology research, wiggling the eyes back and forth can help improve memory. This is based on a study using 102 participants who heard a list of words and then divided into three groups, with one-third moving their eyes up and down, another third moving their eyes horizontally back and forth, and the last third staring straight ahead. The horizontal wigglers had greater success than the others in recalling the words heard, confirming earlier studies that indicated such eye movement could improve recall.

Another recent article at Manage Your Life Now not only provides a list of seven exercises to improve the memory, but also lists a variety of factors that can negatively impact the memory and should therefore be avoided. The latter includes stress, loneliness and negative thoughts; the former includes learning a musical instrument, exercising and… socialising! That’s right, the next time you take time out to meet a friend for coffee or head off to the bar, you won’t be goofing off or wasting time; you will actually be doing something that can increase your recall.

If those sites aren’t enough, visit the Study Skills Blog, a useful archive of tips for better memorising. While the blog is geared towards students taking exams, the tips have universal appeal. And finally, another article worth reading can be found at Sharp Brains, written by W. R. (Bill) Klemm, a semi-retired neuroscience professor and the author of “Thank You Brain, For All You Remember. What You Forgot Was My Fault.” Here Klemm discusses the deterioration of memory in old age, its possible causes and ways to avoid it.

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