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Fewer Things Better
Fewer Things Better
Ep. 175 - The Brain Science of Memory: 4 Tips to Help You Remember More
Our brains were never meant to hold on to everything. Forgetting isn’t a flaw—it’s how we make space for focus, creativity, and clarity. The challenge isn’t remembering it all, it’s remembering what matters. Think of it as lightening the mental load while keeping the essentials close at hand. In this episode, we’ll explore why it’s normal (and even helpful) to forget, plus share practical tips and simple tricks you can use when you do need to remember something important.
Show Notes:
Last week I was presenting to a group of professional communicators on how to better make messages stick. It’s a skill we all need right now because — let’s be honest — we’re living in dizzy, digital times, and it feels like our attention spans are shrinking by the day.
While I was preparing for that session, I stumbled onto something fascinating: research on why we forget that dates back to the late 1800s. A German psychologist named Hermann Ebbinghaus wanted to understand why our brains are so quick to ditch information–same Hermann, same.
And apparently (according to his research)… that’s by design. Without any reinforcement, he found, we can forget up to 70% of what we’ve just learned within 24 hours. Seventy. Percent. Just gone.
Which, frankly, explains a lot. Like why my son somehow manages to “forget” to load the dishwasher every single time. It’s science, right? I’m just choosing to believe it’s science.
The Bottom Line on Top of this episode is that our brains are wired to forget more than we remember — and that’s actually a feature, not a bug.
So why is this the case? From an evolutionary perspective, our ancestors didn’t need to memorize everything — just the essentials: where the food was, how to get water, how to avoid danger, and who to trust. Storing everything would have slowed down survival.
That wiring hasn’t changed, but our environment has. Now we’re juggling Slack pings, TikTok clips, group chats, emails, and breaking news alerts. Our brains are filtering nonstop, trying to decide: “Is this essential? Is it relevant right now? Will I need it later? Am I in danger?”
If the answer is “no,” then poof, it’s gone. Straight to the mental recycling bin.
The problem with this is that in today’s notification-heavy world, even the most important stuff gets buried under the noise.
Think of your brain as having two memory systems:
- Working memory (our day to day memory) and that is tiny and fragile. Most of us can only hold about four chunks of information at once — and a “chunk” is simply a unit of meaning, like a phone number, a short phrase, or a single idea.
For example, remembering the numbers 2-0-2-5 can feel like four separate pieces — unless you recognize it as “the year 2025,” which your brain processes as one chunk instead of four. The more you can group related pieces together, the more working memory you free up. - Long-term memory is more like a vast library, but you need to “file” information properly to store it in there. That filing job? It’s handled by the hippocampus, a region deep in the brain that acts like a transfer station. If information doesn’t make it there — through repetition, emotion, or context — it simply won’t stick.
Here’s the cool part: emotion and meaning create stronger “filing labels.” Your brain is more likely to store memories tied to feelings, stories, or sensory experiences. That’s why you can remember where you were when you heard big news years ago, but forget what you had for lunch yesterday. The richer the context, the deeper the memory.
And here’s a bonus: sleep is cognitive glue. During deep sleep, your brain strengthens the neural connections that turn short-term bits into long-term storage. Skimp on sleep, and your recall takes an immediate hit.
So how do we hold onto the stuff that matters? Here are four small, science-backed tips:
1. Space it out.
Revisit new information after a delay — then again, at increasing intervals. This spaced repetition signals to your brain: “Hey, this matters.”
2. Retrieve, don’t reread.
Memory strengthens when you pull information out, not when you passively review it. Quiz yourself. Say it out loud a few times. Teach it to someone else. That’s known as retrieval practice.
3. Mix it up.
When learning multiple things, alternate between them - spend 20 minutes on one and then shift over to another goal. Think of it like shuffling a playlist instead of putting one song on repeat. When you shuffle, your brain has to switch gears with each track, and that extra effort makes the music — or in this case, the learning — stick better.
It’s called “interleaving” and it forces your brain to distinguish between topics, which creates stronger memory links. It’s like cross-training for your neurons.
4. Sleep on it.
Literally. Sleep is the brain’s night shift — while you’re out, your hippocampus is replaying the day’s events and deciding which memories get filed in long-term storage. Research from Harvard’s Division of Sleep Medicine (that’s a thing) shows that skipping deep sleep can reduce your ability to form new memories by up to 40% — it’s like your hippocampus forgot to hit ‘save.’” If you want more nerdyness on the brain-sleep connections, check out Episodes 29 and 123.
Finally, your brain isn’t a storage unit — it’s a filter. You’re not meant to remember everything. But you can choose what to keep.
So, in the days ahead, make an actual mental note when something matters — pause for a beat, repeat it, say it out loud, write it down. Somehow give your brain the signal: “This one is for keeps.”
Forget about remembering everything.
Focus on remembering what matters most — and let your brain do what it does best.
And, as always, take care to take good care… of your brain, and your memories