Memory and Learning

I have always had an interest in increasing my mental capacity. I have often thought that, if I could learn the right techniques I could substantially increase the amount of information I could store AND retrieve. This is where it gets to the heart of what I'm doing here now. I always feel if I did X then I could expect Y, but my follow through is subpar at best. This interest is not new to me. About 8 years ago I bought books on learning and memory.  I even read a couple of the chapters from each. The problem is that I never put the effort into actually practicing the techniques called out in the books. So for the next 90 days I will dedicate time to studying and implementing the techniques as described and verify if my intuition was right about how much easier learning will become. Now I'm not sure how to measure my success. I will start by reading the books again then I will decide a measurable (or subjective) test to determine the magnitude of change vs the effort put in.