Memory techniques: how to remember what you learn

In the evening you read a lesson carefully and understood it, yet by the next day half of it has gone. It is a familiar experience, and it comes down not to a lack of ability but to method. In this article we explain in plain language how memory works, look at the idea of the forgetting curve and a spaced repetition schedule to counter it, and learn about flashcards, active recall, explaining things in your own words, mnemonics and the “memory palace”. We then give concrete tips for remembering foreign words, terms, formulas, names and numbers, followed by three real-life examples, common mistakes, a practice exercise and a checklist. We have written about study habits in general in effective learning for adults; here we focus more deeply on memory itself.

How memory works: attention, repetition, connections

Without complicated scientific terms, memory can be pictured as a three-step process.

1. Attention. The brain records only what you pay attention to. A text read with the television on and a phone in one hand has been “seen” but not recorded. So the first condition for remembering is studying without distractions. We cover this in detail in how to focus.
2. Repetition. Something seen once fades quickly. Each repetition, especially one where you pull the information out of memory, makes the trace deeper. Walk across a field once and you leave no mark; walk it every day and a path appears.
3. Connections. New information sticks better when it is linked to something you already know. On its own, “debit” is a dry term, but linked to a simple everyday situation such as “money came into the till” it becomes clear.

So remembering is an active process, not a passive one. Every technique in this article strengthens one of these three steps.

The forgetting curve and spaced repetition

How forgetting happens

If you learn something once and never come back to it, you do not forget it evenly: first quickly, then more slowly. Picture a line sloping downwards: the day you learn is the highest point, the first few days bring a sharp drop, and then the line flattens out. This idea is called the “forgetting curve”.

The good news is that each review lifts the line back up, and the next drop is slower. In other words, each time you can leave a longer gap before the next review. Forgetting is not failure but a natural feature of memory. And trying to recall something you have half forgotten strengthens it even more.

A practical review schedule

Spaced repetition means returning to what you have learned at gradually increasing intervals. The schedule below is approximate, so adapt it to your circumstances:

If you have forgotten a lot at any review, send the topic back to the start of the schedule. If everything comes back easily, you can lengthen the next interval.

The simplest way to manage the schedule is your phone calendar: on the day you learn a topic, set reminders for days 3, 7 and 14, such as “Review: Excel formulas”. In a notebook, simply writing the dates at the top of the page and ticking them off is enough.

Active recall, flashcards and the Feynman technique

Active recall: close the book

Active recall means trying to retrieve information from memory instead of rereading it. In practice it looks like this:

1. Read one section carefully.
2. Close the book or the screen.
3. Write down on paper, or say out loud, the main ideas you remember.
4. Open the book, compare what you missed and mark those parts.
5. At the next review, check the marked parts first.

This feels harder than rereading, and that very difficulty is useful: when you reread, the text looks “familiar”, but with the book closed it is clear what you do not know.

Other forms of active recall: writing yourself three questions at the end of a session and answering them the next day, drawing a diagram of the topic on a blank sheet, or asking a family member to quiz you.

Paper flashcards

A flashcard is a small card with a question on one side and the answer on the other. Rules for a good card:

• One card, one idea. Not “all Excel functions” but “What does SUM do?”
• A clear question. The answer is one or two words or a single sentence.
• Both directions. For foreign words, both “English → Uzbek” and “Uzbek → English”.
• Add an example. On the answer side, add a short example sentence or a drawing.

A handy system for paper cards is the box method. Label three envelopes or small boxes “Every day”, “Every 3 days” and “Once a week”. New cards go into the first box. A card you answer correctly moves to the next box; one you get wrong goes back to the first. That way you see difficult cards often and easy ones less often.

Flashcards in apps

For working with cards on your phone there are apps such as Anki and Quizlet. Their advantage is that the app works out the review times for you.

• Anki. You add a new card with the Add button: the question goes in the Front field and the answer in the Back field. When reviewing, you look at the question first and answer in your head, then press Show Answer and rate yourself: Again (could not remember), Hard, Good or Easy. Based on that rating, the app decides when to show the card again.
• Quizlet. You build a set of cards through Create, then practise in the Flashcards, Learn or Test modes. There are plenty of ready-made sets, but cards you make yourself are remembered better: the process of making them is itself learning.

Whichever you choose, the main rule is the same: a little every day, and always try to recall before you look at the answer.

Explain it in your own words

There is a simple exercise known as the Feynman technique: write out the topic in plain words, as if explaining it to a child or to someone far removed from the field. Wherever you stumble or hide behind a complicated term, you have not yet understood it. Go back to the source, fill the gap and explain it even more simply. The technique is especially useful for remembering processes and concepts: something understood lasts much longer than something memorised by rote.

Associations, mnemonics and the memory palace

Associations and mnemonics

Mnemonics are artificial links that make remembering easier. They turn dry information into a vivid picture, sound or sentence.

• A sound-alike word. Link the English word “pillow” with the Uzbek word “pilla” (silkworm cocoon): imagine a soft pillow stuffed with cocoons. “Kitchen” sounds like the Uzbek “kichkina” (small): “our kitchen is small”. The stranger and funnier the picture, the better it sticks.
• A sentence from first letters. The order of the planets in the Solar System (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune) can be remembered in Uzbek with the sentence “Men va yaqinlarim mehmonga yo’l solib uzoq Nurafshonga bordik” (“My family and I set off to visit faraway Nurafshon”). Its first eight words start with the same letters as the Uzbek names of the planets (Merkuriy, Venera, Yer, Mars, Yupiter, Saturn, Uran, Neptun). Making up such sentences with your child is an enjoyable activity too.
• A story. Combine a list of unrelated things (for example, what to buy at the bazaar) into one funny story.

A mnemonic is a support tool and does not replace understanding. Use it only for things that genuinely have to be learned by heart: orders, lists, names and numbers.

The memory palace

The “memory palace” is a very old technique. You choose a place you know well, such as your own home, and set a route through it: gate, courtyard, veranda, hallway, kitchen, living room. Then you “place” each thing you need to remember at these spots in order, linking each one to a vivid picture. When you need to recall them, you walk through the house in your mind and “see” what is waiting at each spot.

For example, if you place the five main points of a talk along the route from the gate to the living room, you can speak without looking at your notes and without losing the order.

Interleaving, sleep and rest

Interleaving

We usually practise one topic to the end before moving on to the next: first only addition, then only subtraction. Interleaving means mixing several similar topics within one practice session. In Excel, for example, instead of separate blocks on SUM, AVERAGE and IF, you solve a mix of different tasks. Each time you have to answer the question “which method is needed here?”, and that is exactly the skill real work requires. Interleaving feels slower and harder, but the knowledge ends up more solid.

Sleep and rest

What you learn during the day is sorted out while you rest and sleep. That is why cramming at the expense of a night’s sleep often fails to deliver: the next day, tiredness weakens both attention and recall. Some simple habits:

• briefly review an important topic a little before bed and recall it once more in the morning;
• instead of one long session, work in short blocks with breaks;
• during a break, take a short walk or look out of the window into the distance rather than at your phone;
• if you notice ongoing problems with sleep or memory, ask a specialist for advice.

How to remember different kinds of things

Foreign words

Learn phrases and example sentences rather than single words. For each word, make up a sentence from your own life, say it out loud and write it on a card. A complete roadmap for learning a language is in learning English.

Terms

A new field means new terms. For each term, write down three things: a simple definition, an everyday example and how it differs from a similar term. You can find plain explanations of common digital and career terms in our glossary, and its definitions make convenient flashcards.

Formulas and processes

Before memorising a formula, understand what it means. For example, draw the formula linking distance, speed and time as a triangle: distance at the top, speed and time at the bottom. Cover one, and the other two show how to find it. Draw processes (such as document flow or the steps of installing a program) as a diagram or numbered list, and try redrawing them with the book closed.

Names and faces

When you meet someone, use their name once or twice in the conversation straight away: “Nice to meet you, Shahnoza opa”. Link the name to a feature of their face or to someone you know with the same name. After the meeting, add a short note next to the name in your phone contacts: where you met and what you talked about.

Numbers

Break a long number into chunks. The sample phone number 998901234567 is hard to memorise, but as “998 — 90 — 123 — 45 — 67” it is much easier. Link the chunks to familiar things: a birth year, a house number or a sequence. Do not write secret numbers, such as a bank card PIN, openly on paper or in your phone’s notes.

Three real-life examples and tips for adults

The examples below are illustrative and the names are made up.

Zilola: English words

Zilola, 27, is learning English to work in a hotel. She used to reread her word lists over and over, and a week later had forgotten most of them. Now, every day after work, she adds a few new hotel-related phrases to Anki (“check in”, “room service”), writes her own sentence for each and reviews the cards on the bus. On her day off she writes down from memory, on a blank sheet, everything she learned that week and checks it against her cards.

Ulugbek: accounting accounts

Ulugbek, 35, is studying accounting and needs to memorise the chart of accounts. Rather than learning the numbers one by one, he learns them in groups: once he understands that the 5000 group relates to cash and the 6000 group to current liabilities, he “slots” accounts such as 5010 (cash in the till) and 5110 (settlement account) into those groups. These numbers are given only as an example, so check the exact list against your own course materials. For each account he makes a card: the number on the front, and on the back its name and one everyday transaction, such as “the shop’s takings were paid into the till”. Once a week he does mixed practice: he reads various transactions and says which accounts are involved. If you want structured training in this field, we have an accounting programme.

Hamid aka: IT terms

Hamid aka, 63, a retired teacher, is learning IT terms so that he can speak the same language as his grandchildren and understand computers better. He takes only a few terms a day and compares each with something from his own life: “a browser is a window you look out of onto the internet”, “cloud storage is keeping your files in a warehouse on the internet”. He writes the terms in large letters on paper cards and reviews them with the box method. Every evening he explains one new term to his grandson; that is his Feynman technique.

Tips for adults and older learners

• Draw on your experience. You know a great deal; compare every new thing with something familiar.
• Little and often. A few new ideas a day plus a short review beats chasing volume.
• Comfortable conditions. Large print on cards, good lighting, glasses if needed and a larger text setting on your phone.
• Read and write aloud. Combining seeing, speaking and handwriting strengthens memory.
• Do not compare yourself with younger people. Everyone has their own pace; what matters is not stopping.

Common mistakes

• Rereading again and again. The text feels familiar, but with the book closed it is hard to recall. Always test yourself after reading.
• Cramming the night before. Trying to learn everything the night before an exam or interview may help briefly, but the knowledge fades quickly and tiredness spoils the result.
• Only highlighting. Colouring half the text yellow looks like active work, but it does not replace recall practice. Turn what you highlighted into questions.
• Too much new material. If you add dozens of new words a day, within a week you will not have time to review them.
• Losing heart over forgetting. Forgetting a little is natural; it is precisely the effort of recalling that strengthens memory.

Practice exercise and checklist

Try this exercise over one week. As your topic, take whatever you are learning now: a foreign language, professional terms or course material.

1. Day 1. Choose about ten key ideas from the topic and make a flashcard for each (on paper or in an app). In the evening, close the book and write them down from memory.
2. In your phone calendar, set review reminders for days 3, 7 and 14.
3. Day 2. Write out one difficult idea in plain words using the Feynman technique, or explain it to a family member.
4. Day 3. Review the cards: try to recall first, then look at the answer. Set aside the ones you forgot.
5. Days 4–5. For the two or three hardest ideas, invent a mnemonic or “place” them around your home.
6. Day 6. Interleaving: shuffle the cards and review them together with earlier topics.
7. Day 7. On a blank sheet, write down everything you learned this week and compare it with day 1.

Memory checklist

• While studying, my phone is out of the way and I focus on one thing.
• After every session I close the book and recall.
• Review dates are marked in my calendar.
• Each card holds only one idea.
• I can explain the difficult parts in my own words.
• I use mnemonics for dry lists and numbers.
• From time to time I practise topics mixed together.
• I rest enough and do not cut my sleep short to cram.

A good memory is not a talent but a skill you can learn. Choose one technique today, such as recalling with the book closed, and use it for a week: you will notice the difference yourself.

If you would like to learn new skills systematically with a teacher and a group, take a look at our association’s free training programmes. When you are ready, submit an application and our specialists will get in touch.