5 Steps to Create a Memory Palace

The last post that I posted was about an ancient memory technique that was used by the Greeks and the Romans, called the memory palace. The technique is extremely helpful for remembering long lists, city maps, entire books, and really anything else that you may want to memorise. If you want to view that last post, it was called; Memory Palace. It is one of the most used memory techniques in the world, simply because of its effectiveness.

Credit: M.C Escher "Relativity"

1. Base it upon something familiar

Whilst it is of course possible to create your own imaginary memory palace, and there are many people who do, it is often easier to build upon something that is already known to you. For example; your house. I'm sure that you know the layout of your house well enough to be able to go from room-to-room in your mind. In fact, a memory palace wont be able to work if you don't know your memory palace well.

One memory champion would take a certain route through London, passing many famous landmarks. This journey was his memory palace, and he made sure that he walked there often so he would know it well, because he knew that he needed to in order for it to work. 

2. Determine the size of your palace

Depending upon what you want to memorise, will determine how big your palace should be. The bigger your memory palace, the more locations there will be to store information, hence bigger palaces will be used for memorising larger piece of information.

It's also of no value to memorise a large memory palace, only to store a little bit of information. For example; if you have a memory palace that contains 50 rooms but you are only memorising 6 things, you're wasting your time remembering the rest of the palace. So judge the size accordingly, it can be a little tricky to start with.

I'll give you some examples. If you were to try and remember 10 pieces of information, you could probably just use a memory shed. A shed is only small, so it's not challenging to remember at all, and the locations would consist of things that are already inside of the shed, or are part of the shed to begin with. (Tools, door, window, vices, bikes, etc.)

If you were to memorise larger amounts of information, you may decide to use your house as your memory palace. And for much larger pieces of information, you should probably use a mansion, or a familiar area that can house lots of locations.

This isn't to say that you can't memorise large pieces of information using smaller memory palaces because it is certainly possible, but to make things easier for yourself, it's better to use larger areas to store a large group of things mentally.

3. Memorise you memory palace

The next step would now be to memorise your memory palace. For you to carry out this technique to its fullest, you will need to have memorised your memory palace completely, from top to bottom. If it's a building or place that you go to often in real-life, then walk around it slowly taking everything in. From the walls, to the decorations, to the carpets, to the colours, to the scent. The more things that you can associate to each place in your memory palace - the better. It will make remembering the layout and route of your memory palace all the easier.

Another method, whilst it might be difficult for many, would be to draw out blueprints and multiple views of your memory palace. Then you can picture yourself actually walking through while looking at your drawings. You can review it as many times as you want, and know that because of your drawings, that things wont become distorted in your mind. If you're using a real life building or place and are not so good at drawing, then take photos and review them. Try to take in everything you see really imagining yourself inside of the photo, walking from it to the next.

4. Identify locations

The whole point of having a memory palace is to place pieces of information that you would like to memorise in certain locations inside of your memory palace. Thus it seems logical that you should memorise as many locations inside of your memory palace as possible. Make sure before committing any information to these locations, you have thoroughly implanted the locations into your mind - you don't want to have to be trying to remember what the locations are, and the information that goes with them on top. 

5. Review Frequently

Storing information inside of your memory palace does help to retain it, but without frequent visits to your palace, the information will start to float to the back of your mind out-of-reach. So to avoid this make sure that you journey through your palace often, whilst journeying the information that you are storing there should come into your mind when you pass where they are being stored. 

Conclusion

Building a memory palace, including becoming familiar with it; knowing every location and route, does take time and isn't a one night miracle that will have you remembering anything you want by morning. It is a steady process, and is dependant upon the amount of effort you are willing to put in. But it is highly effective and has been used for thousands of years, so just be patient with it.

You can also incorporate other mnemonic devices into your memory palace to help you remember things better. For example: to remember the order of the planets in our solar system from the sun, a mnemonic phrase "My Very Earnest Mother Just Served Us Nachos". (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune). Pluto is now classed as a dwarf planet. From this mnemonic phrase, it would be very easy to picture your mum very earnestly serving you nachos inside of your mind palace, not to mention reminding you of the information she represents.

Once you've mastered the technique, you can go on and build more elaborate palaces, or even a memory city. :)

I don't claim ownership or credit for the picture that is present, all credit is reserved for the original owner. No copyright intended. If you have an issue with the picture that is present, then please contact me. I am in no way profiting from the picture that is present.