What are some strategies to improve short-term memory?

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I'm finding it quite difficult to remember what I just did, read, said, saw, thought of, etc. and was wondering for those that experience the same thing, what do you do to overcome this?

It gets worse when someone is talking to me as I can't recall 50-75% of what they just said. In addition, I'm finding it harder to concentrate on what I'm doing and get distracted quite easily. For instance, I'll start an online lesson then five minutes later I'll start reading a book instead. Five minutes after that I'll be cleaning or organizing something. I wasn't diagnosed with an attention disorder when I saw the psychologist, so I'm not sure what is happening. I wasn't always like this. I use to have a very sharp memory.

Short-term memory is "dog-thinking", whereas long-term memory is "cat-thinking".

Thinking like a dog is about thinking in people/the pack instead of objects/territory. But having Aspergers is almost equivalent to thinking like a cat, so that's why short-term memory is often an issue for people like us. Similarly long-term memory can be problematic for NTs.

So my best advice is to try to think more in people and your relation to other people when needing short-term memory. This will, however, soon enough become quite exhausting.

I can't remember...

It sounds like your focus has waned - it's a skill, and it needs practice. I notice that it goes if I haven't worked for a while.

I find things like reading for half an hour periods can help restore it.

The memory - translate what is being said to words - or pictures. Vivid pictures. Connect other pictures to those pictures.

Put in the amount of mental effort appropriate to what you want to remember - otherwise one's brain will be fried.

fish oils/krill oils/flax seed oils

brain is fat..i think? so to be called a fat head is a good thing

short term memory can be improved by something like sudoku, memory games/quizzes etc.

some examples:

http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/stm0.html
http://www.freebrainagegames.com/games/ ... recall.php

www.lumosity.com

I'm finding it helpful in improving my brain. I'm not sure how much it's helped, but I've been doing better.

Sometimes it helps me to do a play-by-play of sorts in my mind while I'm doing things. For example, if I put something down, I'll say to myself "the car keys have been set on the kitchen counter, to the left of the coffeemaker." The next morning when I wake up, I'll go for the car keys and will immediately recall where I put them.

I use a technique called memory place. Basically you take a plase you know intimatly and fill it with the things you need ro remember. When you want to retrieve the information just walk throught the place in your mind. Memory has a lot to do with the creativity,so work on your imagination.