Where did you put the remote? A bad memory may not be the problem.

Instead of remembering too little, you may be remembering too much. All that information -- especially the useless kind -- can clutter up your brain. The real key to a good memory is being selective: retaining the relevant and discarding the unimportant. Whether you can actually retrain your brain is unknown, but don't forget to give it a try!

When it comes to short-term visual memory -- for example, where you left your drink, what that street sign said -- the brain generally can retain only three or four things at once. Because of this, efficiently "erasing" unnecessary information can make the difference between people with good recall and those without. In fact, people who claim to have a bad memory actually may have more stuff crammed into their brains than people with great recall do; it's just more stuff than they need. So when you really need to remember something you're looking at, try to ignore everything around it.