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Part of being a good observer is remembering details. This includes remembering everything from locking your door before you leave your house to the color of the car you parked beside. Since our brains filter a lot of that irrelevant information out, make a conscious effort to start committing simple details to memory. It will help you improve your memory while making you a better observer of your surroundings.  As you leave your house, tell yourself, "I turned off the stove. I locked the door." This will help you commit it to memory. This technique also helps you start observing small, everyday tasks. Use memory games like concentration. The memory skills you want to develop for strengthening observation skills are the ones connected to the senses. Sight is especially important. Show yourself pictures, then close your eyes and try to remember what you observed in the photo. Walk through the city and remembering what you smelled. Try to replay conversations from the day each evening to see how much of the dialog you can remember word for word. One reason that people are not as observant as they should be is because they are distracted. Cell phones, music, a to-do list - there are a lot of reasons why people are distracted daily. Try getting rid of distractions so you can focus on your surroundings.  Remove your headphones when you walk or are on the train. Listen to the sounds around you, including conversations. Don't just look at the objects around you, consciously observe them. By not being distracted, you will be aware of everything around you and remember it more easily. Focus on the television show or movie you are watching and listen closely to songs. Instead of mindlessly watching or listening, pay attention to them. Think about costuming choices in the show or movie, or why the director chose a particular way to set up a shot. Look at the props, especially the background, and see what you can observe and deduce about the characters, themes, or plot. Try to figure out the meaning of song lyrics as you listen. Observation is a very scientific approach to the world. By keeping a field journal, you are recording your observations. This can be about anything; the important thing is to observe everything around you and strengthen your observation skills.  Start by going to a park with a notebook. Jot down what you see around you. Make sure to note specifics, like the color of the shirts people are wearing, the birds flying overhead, the sounds. Begin trying to figure out what are important details and which details are not as important. Use this field observation in other aspects of your life. How many times does the guy in the cubicle next to you get up to talk on his cell during the day? How many times does a customer pick up an item before they buy it? What color shirt do most people wear on the bus? Take these observations and begin to draw conclusions. For example, customers don't pick up food items multiple times before buying them; they pick them up and set them on the counter. Customers pick up beauty products five times before making a decision to buy it. Your boss always wears a blue shirt on Mondays, and green shirt on Thursdays.  Use this journal to outline irregularities in your day. Think about irregular sounds or events that happen around you. Being a good observer means being able to pick out things that are out of the ordinary. Part of observing is coming to conclusions. Practice observing the world and analyzing what that means. Don't just observe without doing anything with the information.  If you see a frazzled mother in a store with her teenage daughter, then spot college brochures inside her purse, you can come to the conclusion that she is stressed because her daughter is about to go to college. If you see a man with a stain on his shirt, and then see the car seat in his backseat, you can conclude that the stain was a baby-related accident. Meditation is a great exercise for strengthening observation skills. It helps you clear your mind of clutter and distractions so you can focus. Spend 10-15 minutes a day relaxing. Get in a quiet room, or turn on quiet instrumental music. Breathe in and out and push all thoughts from your mind. Focus on everything around you, like the sounds and the smells.
Improve your memory. Eliminate distractions. Keep a field journal. Form connections between what you see. Meditate.