Today’s tip is guaranteed to rev up your recall for things you absolutely have to remember, such names, codes or passwords.

The Storytelling Technique is a great way we can make anything more meaningful and easier to remember. What do you need to do? Simply make up a short, one-line story to help you learn and recall whatever it is you need to remember. Meeting Sam Waterford? Think “Sam forded the water” to make that name more memory-able. Need to remember the license plate of your rental car? Just convert “NZ110C” into a little ditty that is hard to forget – perhaps “In New Zealand it is 110 degrees Celsius.” Keep in mind that the more unusual or odd your story is, the more effective it will be.

Give Storytelling a try throughout the day today. If you like this strategy, keep practicing to perfect it so that it becomes a routine brain boosting habit.

Want to learn more about Storytelling and some other memory strategies you can use at the office? Check out Total Memory Workout for our complete memory strategy program.

Today is Sunday, a day when many of us get ahead on our cooking for the work week. Why not take the time today to cook up a brain healthy and easy chicken curry?

Studies have suggested that one of the main ingredients in curry, turmeric, may have properties that reduce inflammation and promote healthy aging. Turmeric is a spice commonly used in Indian and South Asian cuisine. Often found in curries, it is a great spice to add to your diet and cooking repertoire.

I’m happy to share this fool-proof recipe for Chicken Curry. Its a real favorite in our family, and makes great leftovers for lunch at the office over the next few days.  I learned the original recipe from our close family friend Cathy, and have added my own touches over the years! Warning: The recipe does contain peanut butter. For those with allergies, you can easily substitute an alternative or leave out the peanut butter.

Chicken Peanut Curry

(serves 4) Preheat oven to 350°

Ingredients:

Boneless and skinless chicken breasts, 4-6

1 cup Dijon or seeded mustard

1 cup honey

1 Tablespoon curry powder

1 Tablespoon peanut butter

¼ cup cilantro, finely chopped

- Rinse and pat dry chicken breasts. Place in lightly oiled baking dish.

- In a separate bowl, mix together the mustard, honey, curry powder and cilantro.

- Pour the mixture over the chicken, spreading evenly to coat all the meat.

- Bake for 45 minutes. Remove from oven.

- Carefully tilt the pan to one side, so that the sauce gathers to one area. Add the peanut butter to the sauce, mixing throughly with a fork so that the peanut butter melts into the sauce.

- Turn the chicken and resdistribute the sauce evenly. Return the dish to the oven for an additional 5-10 minutes.

Not a regular Julia Child? No worries! Try ordering in curry for dinner tonight from a local Indian restaurant, or trying some for lunch at the office tomorrow.

Happy Saturday! Today we’re going to try a new way to soothe your spirits.

Lavender has been shown in studies to decrease agitation and enhance our sense of calm and well-being. It can also be useful as a natural sleep aid, as it has been shown to help promote better sleep. In fact, lavender is a big hit in our family, where we use it every night prior to bed. My school age daughter loves the calming effects, and it is a favorite part of our nightly ritual.

Take some time today to try some lavender. Look for high-grade essential lavender oil, which you can usually find at health food or similar stores. Good online sources for these high quality oils include Amrita (currently running a sale on wild lavender oil) and Young Living. There are several ways to benefit from your use of lavender oil. At first, you may wish to try taking a gentle whiff of the oil, and see how your body reacts. Do you notice a shift in your mood? If your reaction is positive (and your skin is not too sensitive), try applying some of the oil to your pulse points or chest prior to going to bed. You can also dilute the oil into high quality light oil, also available from these retailers.

After trying the lavender oil this weekend, think about ways you can bring it to the office next week. You can also look for items such as good quality lavender diffusers or candles (which may or may not work at your office setting).

Today’s tip gives you a surefire strategy to boost your ability to remember names.

Learning names can be one of the most challenging memory tasks we face at work. I often joke to my clients that remembering names is a bit like a pop quiz for the brain – we have little time to learn the information, and not much warning when we need the name again! There’s even more pressure on us to get that name right the first time at the office, where that personal touch of getting someone’s right the first time can really matter.

We can all boost our brain power for names by using simple strategies to make names more memorable. These strategies, based on techniques that have been around for centuries, help us in two significant ways: First, they hone our focus on the name; Second, they make the name easier to recall by making it more meaningful to us.

One of my favorite name-getting strategies is Connections. In Connections, you simply make a link between the name you are learning and someone or something that you already know. For example, if you meeting someone named Bernard, you might think of a St. Bernard, a favorite restaurant called Bernard’s, or even a long lost cousin named – you guessed it! Bernard.

Try Connections today at least 3 times. Practice it as you meet a new customer, are greeted by your server at lunch (since they often tell you their name), or chat with someone new on the phone. Keep in mind that practice definitely makes perfect when it comes to memory strategies. You’ll get the biggest boost for your memory power by making strategies such as Connections a regular habit.

Want to learn more about how memory strategies work or try other techniques to rev up your recall for names? Check out my Total Memory Workout program, which has a whole session devoted just to this topic (as well as 6 other easy strategies to ban name dropping from your work life).

Today lets try eating something a bit brain healthy. Many of us are familiar with salmon, probably one of the most popular cold-water fish. But did you know that salmon is high in Omega 3 fatty acids, a nutrient that has been associated with better long-term brain health?

Several large, epidemiological studies in the U.S. as well as Europe have found that folks who report regularly eating fish in their diet have an associated reduced risk for memory loss. In addition, animal studies have shown that diets high in Omega 3s are linked to better memory performance when compared to diets that are higher in “junk food.”

I suggest that today you add a bit of salmon to your diet. Try having salmon sushi for lunch, or make a salmon salad for your sandwich or for dinner. You can treat salmon just as you would tuna, mixing it with a bit of light mayo and Greek yoghurt. Add curry powder and some veggies to make it even more of a brain healthy treat.

Enjoy!

What is good for your mind and for your spirits? Try a little human kindness.

Why does altruism matter to our brains? Some studies have shown that participating in volunteer activities offer us opportunities to stay mentally sharp. In addition, helping others gives us a chance to stay socially connected, which in itself has been linked to reducing our risk for memory loss. Finally, a small but notable recent study found that folks who reported having a greater sense of purpose had an associated reduced incidence of dementia later in life.

Take a few minutes today to simply do something kind for someone else at work. Bring your colleague with the sniffles a cup of tea, act as a sounding board for someone puzzling through a presentation, help out that cubicle neighbor stressed out by a deadline. Even just a few minutes doing a random act of kindness will be good for your brain and for your heart.