7 Memory skills that will make you smarter

"Learning is deeper and more durable when it's effortful... Learning that's easy is like writing in sand, here today and gone tomorrow."

- Make It Stick: The Science Of Successful Learning

• Bring it back from memory

Retrieval is so effective is that it strengthens the neural pathways associated with a given concept.

When you're attempting to recall an idea, method, or technique from memory, you're retrieving. Flash cards are a great example: They force you to recall an idea from memory, unlike a technique like highlighting where you're not burning anything into your brain.

• Connect new ideas 

...to what you already know.

When you try to put a new idea into your own words, you're elaborating.

For example, if you're in physics class and trying to understand heat transfer, try to tie the concept into your real-life experiences, say, by imagining how a warm cup of coffee disperses heat into your hands.

• Interleaving: Varying your subjects

When you work on a variety of things at once, you're interleaving.

If you're trying to understand a subject — from the basics of economics to hitting a pitch — you're going to learn better if you mix up your examples.

• Answer before you have an answer

When you try to give an answer before it's given to you, you're generating.

In an academic setting, you could work finding your own answers before class starts. In a professional setting, you could supply your own ideas when you're stuck before talking with your boss.

• Evaluate what happened

When you take a few moments to review what happened with a project or meeting, you're reflecting.

Reflective writing is super powerful. You might ask yourself a few questions: What went well? Where can you improve? What does it remind you of? Reflective writing to be super powerful.

• Mnemonics: Use hacks to recall

When you're using an acronym or image to recall something, you're using a mnemonic.

Example: The hall of fame includes abbreviations — Roy G. Biv for the colors of the spectrum ( Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet) — and rhyming, like "in 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue."