It’s time to play some mind games

Your gloves are missing again. Your dentist appointment? Completely forgotten. Your niece’s birthday – uh, sometime in the summer? You do know one thing for certain: You and your memory are constantly in opposition. Still, you keep hoping it’s a relationship that can be improved.

The odds may not appear to be in your favor. “Despite the fact that I have studied memory for a long time, my tendency is to try to avoid relying on mine,” says Aaron P. Nelson, Ph.D., chief of neuropsychology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, in Boston, and the author of “The Harvard Medical School Guide to Achieving Optimal Memory” (McGraw Hill, $15). Rather than depend on something so undependable, Nelson and other researchers recommend a few practical strategies for the most common types of memory lapses.

Problem: You tend to forget appointments, addresses, PINs and passwords.

Real Simple Solution: The only way to make essentially boring data part of your long-term memory is to store it properly so you can retrieve it later on. “If you don’t make a conscious effort to learn your PIN, your short-term memory will flush it out immediately,” says Zaldy S. Tan, M.D., director of the Memory Clinic at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, in Boston. Attach some sort of meaning to it. For an important date, like your niece’s birthday, give it an emotional connection (eight days after the Fourth of July). For less important information, like a dentist’s appointment, don’t even try to remember. “This is exactly why God invented the PDA and the date book,” Nelson says. “The onus isn’t on your brain to do the heavy lifting.”

Problem: You can’t remember where you put your keys, wallet, or train pass.

Real Simple Solution: Pay attention when you’re putting things down, and tell yourself, silently or out loud, what you’re doing: “I am putting my keys in my coat pocket,” for instance. Consistency is an even better strategy. “If you put your keys in the same dish every day, you’ll always, without fail, know where they are,” says Edgerly. “Having a good memory often has to do with developing good habits.”

Problem: You have a hard time remembering people’s names.

Real Simple solution: Most people are visual learners, Edgerly says, which explains why you rarely forget faces but often forget names. So when you meet someone new, take a good look at the person, repeat her name to yourself at least three times, then use it in conversation. You can also try to link the name with a distinguishing feature, suggests Small, who is also the author of “The Memory Prescription” (Hyperion, $26