Tricks to Sharpen Your Memory
NJCher posted a link to a good article on "38 Science-Backed Tricks to Sharpen Your Memory" in the Health Forum.
https://democraticunderground.com/114233589
The article is here:
I came up with some tricks of my own, based on street experience, which I post here for your education and hopefully, a few chuckles. 
I use these.
⦁ No TV. I don't even know where I stashed it.
⦁ Music all the time. Play if you can. Memorize! I did it as a youngster. Pianists memorize whole concertos! This engages three halves of the brain, seeing (until you have memorized ), sight, muscles that play the notes, and sound. Oh, that's four. Keeps you ♯.
⦁ Air tags on everything, if you can't keep everything in one place. The basket with keys, pens, cards overflows often. (For ultra vital items, I use a manly shoulder bag and never empty it.)
One shopping trip, I lost a set of keys twice, inside the car. Stuff falls. Get clothes with deep pockets. and Shallow pockets are the work of the devil. 👹
⦁ Outsource your memory. I buy a big box of medium postit note pads now and then. One pad carries my shopping list. Another carries the latest to-do list. If I lose one, no matter. Stuff on computers and phones competes with the entire damn internet for attention.
⦁ I carry three sets of keys, plus a spare home key in the phone jacket. I use an ancient cloth camera case over an Otter case. Stuff falls. Air tags on the car keys.
⦁ Don't use your phone to surf the internet or reply to a DU post. The "keys" are too small, and you'll just get angry, especially when autocorrect picks the wrong wood for you.
⦁ Pay for stuff with your phone, and keep it in a shoulder bag. You won't forget it if you use it often. Have lots of friends who text you all day.
⦁ My family bought me an Apple Watch for Christmas. Wow. If nothing else, it has an instant phone pinger. I hope not to need the fall detection.
⦁ Photograph nature. It opens the eye and mind to find beauty and details that others miss in their rush, and blocks out negative thoughts. Those are worth forgetting. Helps you "focus"
⦁ Keep a journal and notebooks. Writing improves retention. Handwriting reveals your emotional state, and there's no autocorrect to pass you off. A good miss steak is OK. CVS has daily journals without weekdays printed in.
Writing down the day of the week helps you remember what damn day it is. The old Casio watch did, too.
⦁ Keep the phone close by. When, not if, you lose your glasses, the camera or magnifier app will focus far ( I'm nearsighted ) and find the AirTags. So will the watch. It will find the phone, which helps you find the eyeglasses.
Edited to add:
• I couldn't find the watch charger today (so what else is new? ) so I was thinking of putting an AirTag on the charger cord and USB-C block.
• It's Wednesday. I know that because the backup generator did its weekly self-test this morning.
• Use touch-ID or Face-ID to make phone payments. If you type in the passcode, shoulder-surfers will steal your passcode and phone and lock you out of all your accounts. Apple patched over the insecure process just yesterday, but just don't type in your passcode.
So, yesterday, Apple asked me to type in the passcode, which it does every so often, in a store. I paid by card instead.
• One more thing that I forgot.
= new reply since forum marked as read
I can still remember the address of the house where I lived when I was 6. And the one in my teens. And the last house my parents owned. Even the phone number.
Some of the things I do to keep my brain active is work on jigsaw puzzles (on line, of course) and other activities like crossword and slide tile.
Music is a wonderful tool. I find that if I DO forget something, it's usually when I'm very stressed. Music definitely helps. Especially Mersey Beat music.
I've cut WAY back on watching news because, well, the anxiety issue.
But the #1 thing that keeps me mentally agile is dealing with my fur babies. 
One of the major red flags I always watch for is this: My mom had Alzheimer's. Leading up to her diagnosis, and I'm talking several years, she'd always lose her purse in the house. Now, she always put it in the exact same place, hanging on the back of a kitchen chair, but she'd still 'lose' it. As soon as I get home I put my keys right back on the hook. If I start 'losing' them, despite them being where they should be, I'll know something is coming. Now, on the rare occasion if for some reason I set them down somewhere else, I just don't fret and retrace my steps. Bingo. I find the BIGGEST impediment to finding something is frustration.
So, I sometimes take a whole block (or what’s left of it) with me, holding my shopping list. It’s less likely to crumble or fly away as a block. Another might have the to-do list, and so on.
It’s convenient for me, and unlike the phone, if I lose the list, I’ve lost next to nothing.
Big tip of the hat to the notes. 