The idea of a “memory palace” has been around for centuries, and I’ve been loosely trying to use them for a few years. Like many things, though, just trying to use them a little bit meant that I really wasn’t using them at all. I’ve finally cracked down and dug in, and I’m finding some amazing uses for them!
Memory palaces are best for helping you remember a list of items. There are other techniques for remembering text word-for-word (like the app I shared a few weeks ago), and other techniques for remembering names and faces (which I’ll share in the coming weeks), but memory palaces generally focus on lists.
If you’re not familiar with a memory palace for remembering things, the overall concept is fairly simple:
- Think of a place that you know well, like your house, a friends house, or even an area from a video game or movie that you know very well.
- Pick one, and slowly walk through it in your mind. Look for large items (chair, refrigerator, TV, etc) as you go through it. Walk it a few times in your mind until you have a consistent pattern (in the front door, notice the chair, then go to the sofa, then to the TV, etc).
- Now write it down and number the items.
That’s a memory palace! Now, to use it to actually remember some items, you need to walk back through it in your mind but assign items to each place.
Here’s a short video of me showing how it could be done with “The 6 Principles of Persuasion” and The Ten Commandments:
How many palaces?
As I’ve been digging into this, the question of “how many palaces should I have?” or “is it ok to reuse a palace for multiple lists?” show up, and the answers are varied. My thoughts are:
- Create a bunch of palaces. Once you get going, it only takes a few minutes to walk through, find some items, and make a list.
- Don’t reuse them very much, if ever.
I struggled for a bit to come up with other ideas for palaces, so here are some that I’m using:
- My house
- The house I grew up in
- My mother-in-law’s house
- My business partner’s house
- Our office
- Our previous office
- Various restaurants that we visit
- Various business meeting facilities
- The high school where I mentor a student every Friday
- The school district office where I have a meeting every month or two
- Church
- The UPS Store that I’m at far too often
Beyond those, you could try:
- Locations from a video game that you frequently play.
- Locations from a movie or TV show that you’re very familiar with.
- Driving down a specific street.
- A local park
- A museum or stadium
The list is endless! The key is to choose locations that you can imagine in your head very clearly, and then briefly write down the path you walk through it. For example, the first five items when I walk into my house are:
- The table my the front door.
- The french doors that lead to my office.
- The old doorbell box on the wall.
- A tall wooden mirror.
- The bannister that leads upstairs.
For most locations, I just have 5-10 items total, but for my house I’ve done five in every room, so I can build a huge list in there if I need to.
This is one of those things that takes a lot of work before you see any results, but once you get it going it can be magical! Have you ever done this before?
