Practice, practice, and more practice. By taking the time to practice new skills over time, you firm up those important neural connections to help you learn and remember. It also provides a foundation to build on as you work to master harder tasks.

That’s not all, though. Getting plenty of sleep sets the brain up for learning, ensuring that it has plenty of resources to spare for higher cognitive skills instead of spending them just to keep you awake and vigilant. Removing or reducing distractions also is essential to success. Also try to reduce your stress level: like lack of sleep, anxiety can get in the way of learning. And, of course, learning by doing—meaning applying different concepts to real world activities—is a fantastic way to learn and remember new material.