Take a nap after attempting to memorize. The brain waves that occur during REM sleep appear to be connected to the ability to recall information---when an individual does not give the brain the ability to go through REM, the amount of information that is recalled correctly diminishes. Getting adequate rest after studying for a large test, attending a seminar or taking notes at a business meeting thus may improve the amount of data that a person remembers and consequently have a positive impact on performance. Make sure that you do not wait until you are totally exhausted, however, to try to memorize, as exhaustion has an impact on the sleep cycle and brain waves associated with memory.
Memorize a little bit of information at a time and repeat the small sections throughout the day. Although some individuals have the ability to memorize data in large quantities, most people find data easier to recall if the data is split up over time. This may be because the individual does not feel the stress and anxiety of memorizing large quantities when they memorize only a little at a time. In addition, repeating information helps solidify neural pathways in the brain---the more often information is recalled the easier it is for the brain to call up the data. Thus, avoid procrastination with memorization tasks because procrastination makes it difficult to split or repeat information sufficiently that has to be memorized.
Present the information to be memorized to yourself in more than one way. The three main ways of presenting information are auditory (through listening), visual (through sight) and motor-physical (through movement). This is beneficial to memorization because it allows the same information to be connected to multiple pathways in the brain. For example, if you sing a song with lecture information while doing a fun dance, the brain will connect the physical movement, the words you sang and the melody. If you forget a portion of the data later, you might be able to recollect it simply by humming the melody or doing the same dance moves, because the melody and the information are connected in the brain.