How to Build a Memory Palace

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In this Article:Article Summary Planning Your Palace Filling Your Palace with Information Using Memory Palaces Community Q&A 11 References

One of the most useful memory aids was created thousands of years ago by the ancient Greeks.

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And the memory palace, a place in your mind where you can store information that you need to remember, is still relevant today. It’s used not only by world record-holding memory champions but also by famous detective Sherlock Holmes. With a little planning and practice, you can build a memory palace, too.

1 Choose a place you can easily visualize as the blueprint for your palace. A memory palace must be a place or route that you are incredibly familiar with, like your childhood home or even your daily commute to work. It can be as small as your closet or as large as your entire neighborhood. The important thing is that you’re able to visualize the place in your head without actually seeing it in real life.^[1]
- Other options for memory palace locations include school, church, work, a vacation spot you visit frequently, or a friend’s house.
- The larger or more detailed the real place is, the more information you can store in the corresponding mental space.
2 Walk through your palace to define a route. Decide how you’ll travel through the palace in your mind rather than just picturing a fixed place. For example, instead of just imagining your house, imagine how you’d walk through it. Do you enter through the front door? What hallway do you walk down? What rooms do you go to? If you need to remember things in a certain order, follow a specific route through your palace, both in the real world and in your mind.^[2]
- Beginning to practice your route now will make it easier to memorize later on, too.
3 Identify specific locations in the palace to store your information. Think about exactly what you’re going to be putting in your memory palace, whether it’s a number, name, or important dates you need to remember for an exam. You’ll store each piece of data in a separate location so you need to identify as many locations as you have data. Each storage spot needs to be unique so that you don’t accidentally mistake one spot for another.^[3]
- If your palace itself is a route, like your drive to work, choose landmarks along the way. Some examples include your neighbor’s house, a traffic light, a statue, or a building.
- If your palace is a structure, consider separating information in different rooms. Then, within each room, identify smaller locations like paintings, pieces of furniture, or decor.
4 Practice visualizing your finished palace by physically drawing it. On a piece of paper, sketch your memory palace or, if it’s…