How to build a memory palace, step by step

What is a memory palace?

A memory palace is a place you know well, used as a filing system for things you want to remember. You pick a route through it, choose a series of spots along that route, and leave one vivid image at each spot. To recall the information, you walk the route in your head and look at what's there.

The technique is also called the method of loci. Loci is Latin for "places". It's old: Roman writers on public speaking, including Cicero, described it more than two thousand years ago, and they tell a story crediting its discovery to the Greek poet Simonides of Ceos. Historians treat that story as a legend, but the method itself is real and still used by people who compete in memory contests.

Why it works

Most of us are poor at holding on to a bare list of words, but good at remembering places. You could describe the walk from your front door to your bed without ever having studied it.

A memory palace turns the first kind of job into the second. The route keeps everything in order, each spot acts as a cue, and a strange image is easier to find again than a plain word. Instead of asking "what was the fourth thing?", you only have to ask "what was by the kitchen tap?"

Build your first palace in five steps

1. Pick a place you know very well. Your home is ideal. You should be able to picture it with no effort, because all your effort needs to go on the new information.
2. Plan a fixed route. Go through it in the same direction every time, such as clockwise from the front door. A route that never changes is what keeps your list in order.
3. Choose your stops. Start with ten distinct spots along the route: the doormat, the coat hooks, the sofa, the window, and so on. Use spots that look different from each other, and walk through them in your head until you can name them without pausing.
4. Turn each item into an image and place it. Make the image big, odd and physical, and have it interact with the spot. Don't just put it there. If the item is "coffee" and the stop is the doormat, the doormat is soaked and squelching with hot coffee.
5. Walk it back. Close your eyes and go along the route, reading off what you find at each stop. Then go through it backwards. Any stop that comes up empty needs a stranger image.

A worked example: a five-point talk

Memory palaces are useful well beyond shopping lists. Say you need to give a short talk without notes, and your points are: last year's results, a new customer, hiring, the budget, and next steps. Using a route through your home:

• Front door: a huge bar chart has been nailed across the door, so you have to duck under it. That's last year's results.
• Coat hooks: a customer in a crown is hanging from the hooks, waving at you. That's the new customer.
• Sofa: a row of people in interview suits are squashed onto it, all holding out their CVs. That's hiring.
• Kitchen tap: you turn it on and coins pour into the sink. That's the budget.
• Back door: a staircase has been built outside it, and you start climbing. Those are the next steps.

On the day, you stand up and walk through your house. Each stop gives you the next point, and because you're remembering the point instead of a script, you can speak in your own words.

What can you remember with it?

• Shopping lists and to-do lists
• Talks, presentations and exam answers, one key point per stop
• Ordered facts, such as the steps in a process
• Vocabulary in another language, using an image of what each word sounds like
• Long numbers and playing cards, once you've learned to turn them into images. Number shapes are the easiest place to start.

For a single fact, you may not need a palace at all. To remember someone's name, a picture joined to their face works better. A palace earns its keep when the order matters or the list is long.

Common mistakes

• Images that are too polite. A loaf of bread on a table is forgettable. A loaf of bread kicking the table is not.
• Stops that look alike. Four identical kitchen cupboards will blur together. Use the cupboard, the kettle, the bin and the window.
• Changing direction. Keep every walk in the same order, or you'll lose the sequence.
• Too many stops too soon. Get ten working before you try fifty.
• Never reviewing. A palace you walked once will fade like anything else. To keep something for good, walk the route the next day, then a few days later, then about a week after that. Trying to recall it before you look is the part that does the work, as we explain in why re-reading falls short.

Can you reuse a memory palace?

Yes. For short-lived lists, like shopping, you can use the same route again and the newest images will replace the old ones. Give anything you want to keep for a long time its own route, so old and new images don't get mixed up. Your workplace, your school, a friend's flat and a walk around your neighbourhood can all become palaces.

What does the research show?

One of the best-known studies was published in the journal Neuron in 2017. Researchers gave people with no memory experience six weeks of training in the method of loci. On a test with 72 words, the group went from recalling around 30 words to recalling about 35 more, while other groups improved far less.

That's a strong result, but it has limits. It was a small study of young men, and it measured remembering word lists. It doesn't show that the technique makes you smarter or improves other kinds of thinking. It's a skill for remembering information, and it works when you use it.

Frequently asked questions

How long does it take to learn?

You can build and use a ten-stop palace on your first try, in about ten minutes. Getting fast takes regular practice.

What if I can't picture things clearly?

You don't need a photograph in your head. If mental pictures are faint for you, lean on what the scene would sound like, feel like or mean. The route and the strangeness still do much of the work.

Does the place have to be real?

A real place is the easiest to start with, because you don't have to learn it first. Some people later use places from films or games that they know very well.

How many things can one palace hold?

As many as it has distinct stops. A home can easily give you twenty or more once you start using each room.

Is a memory palace the same as a mind palace?

Yes, "mind palace" is another popular name for the same idea.

Try it now

Take the 60-second memory test to see how many of ten words you keep, then try again using a route through your home. If you'd like a shorter first exercise, start with the five-minute memory palace.