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Remember anything by mastering the method of loci
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If you’ve ever read about Sherlock Holmes, you may wonder how anyone can possess so much information in just one brain. We’ll let you in on a secret: the world’s most famous literary detective used the most powerful memory technique in history: the memory palace. Today, this technique is used by world-record-holding memory champions and anyone who wants to study for a test, memorize their grocery list, or win big at their next trivia night. With a little planning and practice, you can build a memory palace, too.

Things You Should Know

  • Choose a place you’re familiar with and can easily visualize, like a room, a building, or a town. Plan a route between the objects, rooms, or landmarks in the space.
  • Make a list of things you need to memorize. Starting with one or two items, create a mental image of them and place them somewhere in your room.
  • Exaggerate your image and make it memorable, e.g. remember Venus in the planet order by imagining a Venus flytrap snapping at you from up on a shelf.
Section 1 of 3:

Creating a Mind Palace

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  1. A memory palace must be a place or route that you are extremely familiar with, like your childhood home or daily commute to work. It can be as small as your closet or as large as your entire neighborhood.[1]
    • The important thing is that you’re able to visualize the place in your head without actually seeing it in real life.
    • The larger or more detailed the real place is, the more information you can store in the corresponding mental space.
    • Other options for memory palace locations include school, church, work, a vacation spot you visit frequently, or a friend’s house.
  2. Decide how you’ll travel through the palace in your mind rather than just picturing a fixed place. Mentally walk through the route multiple times until you can do it with your eyes closed.
    • You can even try doing it backward to really master the flow.
    • Practicing your route now will make it easier to memorize later.
    • You can always revise your route later, so don’t worry about getting it perfect while you’re still creating your mind palace.
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  3. If you’re just getting started with mind palaces, try something small, like a 20-item grocery shopping list. In your chosen memory palace, identify specific locations where you will store each piece of information.[2]
    • You’ll always review your locations in the same order, so place them in an organized way.
    • If your palace is just one room or area, try moving through each locale clockwise or organizing items into a left-to-right or up-to-down flow that you can remember.
    • If your palace is a building or house, consider separating information into different rooms. Then, within each room, identify smaller locations like paintings, pieces of furniture, or decor.
    • If your palace 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.
  4. Choose a mental image or symbol that corresponds with each item or piece of data rather than memorizing a long phrase or list. The more exaggerated, bizarre, or humorous the image, the more likely it is that you’ll remember it. In your mind, attach that image to its designated location.
    • To remember the U.S. presidents in order, add a picture of a washing machine to the first spot for George Washington and a pair of long johns representing John Adams in the next.
    • Your images can also interact with the memory palace, like a roast chicken opening your front door if that’s the first item on your shopping list.
    • Make sure that your images follow an organized flow so you can correctly remember the order.
  5. Create a simple mnemonic by forming an acronym using the first letters of the words in a phrase, or make a little rhyme that helps you remember important information.[3]
    • Insert these new shortened pieces of data into your memory palace instead of the longer piece.
    • For instance, say you need to recall the order of notes on the lines of the treble clef (EGBDF). Imagine a little boy eating a piece of chocolate fudge, which would evoke the first-letter mnemonic “Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge."
    • A rhyming mnemonic is, “In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.” Envision Columbus holding a blue sailboat toy in your living room.
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Section 2 of 3:

Using Your Memory Palace

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  1. The more you walk through and spend time in your palace, the more easily you will recall its contents on demand. You want the visualization to feel effortless and natural.[4]
    • Try to walk through the entire route a couple of times or block out a chunk of time each day to visualize the palace from start to finish.
    • The best part is you can practice this anywhere, anytime. All you have to do is close your eyes.
  2. Once you have memorized the contents of your palace, remember them when you need them by following the route or visualizing a room. With practice, you will be able to start anywhere in your palace or along your route to recall a specific piece of information.[5]
    • If you need to remember that your girlfriend’s birthday is March 16, go into your bedroom and see the soldiers “marching" on the bed to the tune of the 80s cult classic “Sixteen Candles."
  3. A memory palace can be reused over and over again. Replace the existing contents with new information. After a few practice runs, you’ll soon forget the old data and only remember the new data in its place.[6]
    • If your palace is becoming too large or contains information you no longer need, remove that data from the route.
  4. If you have something new you’d like to commit to memory but don’t want to erase your current memory palace, build a new one. File the old palace away and start the process again, choosing a different place to use as your palace.[7]
    • Memory palaces will last as long as you want them to once they’re stored in your brain, and there’s no limit to how many you can build.
    • For example, you might store the names of British monarchs in your house, your family’s phone numbers on your walk to work, and the script for tomorrow’s presentation in your office.
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Section 3 of 3:

What is the memory palace technique?

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  1. Also known as the method of loci or the mind palace technique, this memorization strategy associates visual symbols with locations.[8]
    • As a result, followers of the method of loci can memorize long lists or pieces of data by finding the location in their mind palace that holds that information.
  2. In addition to improving your memory, you can use it to expand your knowledge and develop professional skills. This mind palace technique is especially useful for students who have to memorize large amounts of information for tests and assessments.[9]
  3. While mind palaces may date back even further, history’s first recorded evidence of the method of loci comes from this ancient period.[10]
    • Important orators and scholars like Cicero would use memory palaces to memorize speeches at a time when paper was hard to come by.
    • In the Middle Ages, monks continued to use the mind palace technique to memorize long religious texts.
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Community Q&A

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  • Question
    Can I have multiple mind palaces that have a few similar items in them?
    Community Answer
    Community Answer
    Of course, your mind palace is designed and created by you, so you decide what to put in it. Just be careful if you decide to put similar items in different mind palaces, because you might get confused or mixed up.
  • Question
    How can I learn to remember a speech requiring 950 words?
    Community Answer
    Community Answer
    Don't memorise every word; instead, memorise the key points. Then walk around your memory palace in the specific order of the things in your speech, so that you go through front door and see the first thing, etc.
  • Question
    Can I remember everything I want, or is there a limit to memory?
    Community Answer
    Community Answer
    Most people forget things from time to time, but if you keep reminding yourself of details, you can remember as much as you want.
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Tips

  • Drawing out your mind palace on paper can help you memorize it. Try walking through your palace in your head, then checking against the drawing to see if you missed anything that you included in your drawing.
  • There are computer programs that can help you build digital mind palaces so you can take a virtual tour of them whenever you like.
  • Be persistent. The memory palace is a powerful tool that takes time, patience, and dedication to master.

Tips from our Readers

  • To memorize letter order for spelling tests, try coming up with an acronym with all the letters of each word in order, like Caramel Apple Tattoo for "cat." Then, choose an image connected to the acronym for your mind palace.
  • "The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci" is really helpful if you're looking to learn more about mind palaces.
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About This Article

Allison Broennimann, PhD
Reviewed by:
Clinical Psychologist
This article was reviewed by Allison Broennimann, PhD and by wikiHow staff writer, Sophie Burkholder, BA. Dr. Allison Broennimann is a licensed Clinical Psychologist with a private practice based in the San Francisco Bay Area providing psychotherapy and neuropsychology services. With over a decade of experience, Dr. Broennimann specializes in in-depth psychotherapy to provide solution-focused treatments for anxiety, depression, relationship problems, grief, adjustment problems, traumatic stress, and phase-of-life transitions. And as part of her neuropsychology practice, she integrates depth psychotherapy and cognitive rehabilitation for those recovering after traumatic brain injury. Dr. Broennimann holds a BA in Psychology from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and an MS and Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Palo Alto University. She is licensed by the California Board of Psychology and is a member of the American Psychological Association. This article has been viewed 2,486,430 times.
9 votes - 100%
Co-authors: 59
Updated: September 25, 2024
Views: 2,486,430
Article SummaryX

To build a memory palace, first imagine a real place that you’re familiar with, like your bedroom or your drive to work. As you imagine walking or driving through the location, pick objects or landmarks to represent information. For instance, if you’re memorizing a speech, then your bedroom door might store the first few sentences, your desk might be the next segment, and so on. Commit your palace to memory by drawing it on paper, making notes for the locations of your important information. Keep reading to learn how to use symbols and mnemonic devices in your memory palace!

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Thanks to all authors for creating a page that has been read 2,486,430 times.

Reader Success Stories

  • Huseyin Sencar

    Huseyin Sencar

    Jul 23, 2016

    "These ideas are really awesome! I want to build a real house of my own, so I think it can also be my mind palace..." more
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