When you meet people, especially a lot of people at once somewhere like a networking event, it can be hard to remember their names at first. Here's an easy exercise that will help you to retain this information.

Memorising things, especially long things like speeches and presentations, can be pretty difficult to do. Like all things, practice makes perfect. However, unless you have a pal around to help you with all that practice it's easy for you to slip up while you're practising and miss parts, or not get the whole memorisation thing off the ground in the first place.

We’re all used to skimming past the boring parts of a reading assignment or a web article. But when researchers from RMIT University printed information in a weird, hard-to-read font, they found that people were more likely to remember what they read.

Think about something that happened to you this morning. That there, is your memory. We recall thousands of events and procedures every day, but how exactly does the brain do it? This comic-esque infographic breaks down the science behind this essential and primeval mind hack alongside some valuable improvement tips.

It’s important for little kids to know a parent’s phone number in case of an emergency. But memorising 10 jumbled digits is no easy task. 732-479-6 ... 1 ... gah, lemme start all over! Help them out with a little jingle.

Have you ever inexplicably forgotten your PIN in front of the ATM? Or drawn a terrifying blank in the middle of an important speech? We bet you regularly type in the wrong website passwords too. Same.

If your memory just plain sucks, there are a host of scientifically proven techniques you can employ to combat your chronic forgetfulness. Here are seven of the best, with extra tips that will help to make this newfound knowledge stick.

Think about a book you read last year. How much of it do you remember? Could you list 10 things you learned from it? Can you even remember what books you read last year?

I can remember intricate details about my friends and our conversations from Year Three, but if you send me out down the street to pick up a pizza and a six-pack of beer there's a good chance I'm going to come home without one of them, or at least text you and ask what that other thing was I was supposed to get. And that person I met right before I left? Absolutely no clue what their name is any more.

This might be one of the dorkiest memory tricks ever, but it works, so hey. Backstory: Every time I would use a curling iron, which was maybe once a month, I'd always have the exact same anxiety session about ten minutes after leaving my house. Did I unplug it?! My brain would begin a frantic quest to try to remember. OK, I think I did. No, I'm sure I did. I had to have, right? YES, I DID! ... But what if I didn't?! Commence flash visions of the next day's local newspaper featuring a photo my burned-down house and a very guilty-looking me (though my curls would be magnificent, admittedly).

So-called “baby brain” refers to increased forgetfulness, inattention, and mental “fogginess” reported by four out of five pregnant women. These changes in brain function during pregnancy have long been recognised in midwifery folklore, but our new study has confirmed “baby brain” is a very real phenomenon, and also affects several cognitive areas.

The key to remembering something may be saying it aloud.

I was about five years old when teachers started pointing out that I had a good memory. It led to always being cast as the lead in school plays, because I could reliably remember all my lines within a short period of time. I thought it was because I worked hard. Turns out it might just be because I have a photographic memory.

Rather than being something you just have - or don't - a photographic memory is actually something you can develop.

There are a lot of people that will tell you those brain training games won't make you any smarter, and that's true for the most part. But a recent study suggests you can boost your brain power with the right type of focused training.

Last month I went to Outside Lands, a three-day music festival in San Francisco where musical artists from pretty much every genre out there performed on a bunch of different stages around Golden Gate Park. Regardless of what type of music was being played, each stage had one thing in common: Someone (or a lot of people) were standing close to the stage with their phones hoisted to take pictures and shoot video, obstructing the view of everyone behind them. As a shorter person, I experienced the vast majority of the shows during the weekend by watching them through someone's phone screen. Besides being obnoxious, turns out there also isn't much of a point to filming everything.

Losing your keys is the worst -- so it makes sense to do whatever you can to ensure your keys get back to you safely, should they be misplaced. For some that may mean attaching a Bluetooth-enabled location tracker, but I'd rather not have yet another bulky plastic doohickey on my keychain next to my flash drive. Luckily, the web has come up with a pretty low-tech method of ensuring your keys are returned safely. But first, you'll need to visit a pet store.

I forget pretty much everything when it comes to physical items I need to take with me from my apartment to another location. I own at least a dozen umbrellas that prove this fact. I know it's going to rain, I sit one by the door to take with me when I leave, and then I get downtown and realise I forgot it.

Some things are tough to remember, such as where you parked, and your entire primary school years. Here are a few simple tips that will help jog your memory.

You've got problems, I've got advice. This advice isn't sugar-coated -- in fact, it's sugar-free, and may even be a little bitter. Welcome to Tough Love.

If you've lost your keys, you might think it's best to search in the most obvious, open areas before moving on to more cluttered areas. But a recent study suggests our peripheral vision is better than we think, and being so thorough while searching might actually be a waste of time.