How to Build a Memory Palace: Proven Memory Palace Technique Approach

Anthony Metivier's Magnetic Memory Method Podcast

In our modern world of omnipresent information access, memorization using a Memory Palace was almost a thing of the past.

Almost. Luckily, there’s a growing body of people who are using Memory Palaces because they’re noticing how modern technology isn’t always great for memory.

On this page, I’ll take you through exactly how to create and use Memory Palaces, based on exactly how I benefitted from this technique while earning my PhD and passing a variety of language exams.

I needed this shift back to older memory techniques badly. And the shift back to the popularity of the Memory Palace technique happened quite quickly in the late 1990s. The question is… why?

Little more than two decades ago, it wasn’t uncommon that a person had to memorize a sizable list of phone numbers belonging to partners, siblings, parents and close friends.

But now, more and more, people are finding that their minds feel weak. They can’t recall what they did yesterday, let alone recall a list of important phone numbers.

Fortunately, the ancient Memory Palace technique is still here for people who want to get back to basics and remember key information reliably. And plenty of contemporary science proves that this technique works.

As far as learning techniques go, this technique is not a magic bullet. But as you’re about to discover, the Memory Palace for learning is one of the closest things to real magic we have.

Why The Memory Palace Technique Is Not Snake Oil

I get it. People are skeptical, and they should be. A lot of people sell inferior memory training products, one reason why I created this Consumer Awareness Guide years ago.

Yet, the scientific research you’ll find on this page shows that the Memory Palace, when taught properly, never was and never will be snake oil.

Far from it.

That’s because Memory Palaces have been used for thousands of years. If fact, many people arrive at the technique spontaneously when they realize that you can use your imagination to “store” information in familiar locations.

An Exact Definition Of The Memory Palace Technique

Using this technique is kind of like using a fridge magnet to hold receipts or concert tickets in place. Once locked in place, you can mentally think back to where you left these important items by recalling the space where you left them. The Memory Palace builds upon this concept by associating many things you want to remember with locations in space.

By using this concept strategically, you can remember a lot of of information at scale. People use the technique to help with language learning, passing exams, learning music and a host of other learning goals.

To help you understand just how powerful the technique can be, I’ll share with you my personal experiences using in addition to the scientific research showing just how well it works. You can also enjoy the experiences of several of my students, dozens of whom who have sent me their results for the public to read.

Another reason people are skeptical stems from a lack of self belief. Sadly, the modern world rarely encourages us to use our imagination. It might therefore be slightly challenging for people new to the technique to really get into it.

Because if there is a catch, getting into using the technique is it. In order to fully understand how a Memory Palace works, you need to develop at least a few of them and then use them to complete well-formed learning goals. You can’t just think about the technique. In the words of Yoda, you have to take matters into your own hands and just do it.

The good news is that using a Memory Palace is incredibly engaging. As I told journalist Rebecca Barry when she interviewed me for the New Zealand Herald’s Viva Magazine, this learning technique is much more engaging than the traditional rote memorization technique. It gets even more engaging when you add Magnetic Note Taking as part of the process.

With practice, you’ll soon be impressing all of your friends and family with how good your memory has gotten in no time.

Since practice is so important, let’s talk about how to create a Memory Palace in depth before we get into some of the science behind why the technique works so well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5-YrZhudPU

How to Build a Memory Palace

As you’ve seen, basic idea behind the Memory Palace is simple. You associate pieces of information with locations that you are very familiar with. A prime example would be your home.

But you can also build Memory Palaces based on:

• Homes of relatives
• Workplaces
• Churches
• Schools
• Art galleries
• Cafes and restaurants
• Movie theatres

It’s also possible to use parks, highways and other outdoor locations. This approach is sometimes called the journey method.

However, I advise that beginners start with buildings. I make this suggestion because the walls, hallways and other features of buildings give your mind a kind of scaffolding to hang onto. This is especially important for people new to using visual memory techniques.

You might not be used to imagining things, so giving yourself the solidity of an actual building will reduce the cognitive load involved in using the technique.

Even after developing and using hundreds of Memory Palaces for high-stake uses like delivering a TEDx Talk, I still prefer using buildings myself to keep the cognitive load low. I do sometimes use outdoor locations, something we’ll discuss after going through the following steps.

Step One: Imagine A Location You Want To Develop Into A Memory Palace

Try this simple exercise:

Close your eyes right now and picture a room in your home. Your bedroom or a living room like the one you see pictured below is a great place to start.

To use the Memory Palace technique, you will place the associations on specific “stations” in your Memory Palace. For example, in the image above, the table to the right would be station one, the bookcase station two, etc.

If you’re like most of us, you can probably picture your home with a decent amount of detail. You know where the furniture is found, what colors the walls are, and even where small objects are placed.

Congratulations! You’ve just started the first step of developing your very own Memory Palace. You can start assigning a journey through your first Memory Palace.

To give you a clearer idea of what such a mental journey looks like, here’s a picture of me in a Memory Palace I used to memorize some song lyrics. By following a linear path based on the location of the walls and furniture, it was easy to place associations that helped me recall the words of the song.

A Memory Palace example based on my studio bedroom in Berlin circa 2013.

Step Two: Make A Quick Sketch Of The Location

When just starting out with the Memory Palace technique, I suggest that you draw out a simple journey through the first location you choose by hand.

This simple step will help you quickly decide exactly how you will move through the Memory Palace in order to place associations. It will also reduce the cognitive load that you might experience if you’re new to using techniques like this.

Planning like this also draws upon Abraham Lincoln’s well-known wisdom:

Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.

This is exactly what I’m suggesting you do: spend a few minutes planning out your Memory Palace in detail by sketching it out and you will save time later when you use it to encode information int your long-term memory.

Finally, drawing or sketching out your Memory Palaces will help you avoid “Memory Palace renovation” later.

So that you know what I’m talking about, here’s an example based on one of my many personal Memory Palaces (here are several more Memory Palaces examples if you like):

Quick Memory Palace Drawing by Anthony Metivier (based on an apartment used to help with studying)

The kind of Memory Palace plan above takes most people only a minute or two to sketch out. Please note that it really is just a sketch. We’re not talking about artistic skill. Just a quick sketch that will save you a lot of time because you won’t have to fix things later if you realize that you’ve accidentally led yourself into a dead end.

Now, over the years, people have emailed and explained that for health reasons, they’re not able to draw Memory Palaces. If that’s the case for you, here’s a detailed tutorial with suggestions on how to build a well-formed Memory Palace if for any reason you can’t or don’t want to draw them out.

Step Three: Keep The Journey Simple & Direct

It’s easy to go overboard when designing a Memory Palace.

To avoid issues, I suggest that you use only the parts of the location that are clear to you. It’s okay to leave out entire sections of a location.

In other words, if you’re murky about how a basement looked, I would suggest leaving that part of the building out of the design. Less is more when using this technique.

To make things even simpler, set up a linear journey that lead from the first station in your Memory Palace to the final station without crossing your own path. Just as you wouldn’t confuse yourself while walking through a real location, you want to follow a logical path in your mental version of the location as well.

Step Four: Number The Stations (Optional)

When crafting my Memory Palaces, I like to number the stations for two reasons:

• It focuses my mind on keeping things simple and not overloading the Memory Palace
• Sometimes I use an additional 00-99 P.A.O System to assign an image to each Magnetic Station

The final option is an intermediate/advanced memory skill. But there’s no reason you can’t prepare to be able to use it as a beginner starting now.

Here’s another example of a numbered Memory Palace I prepared for one of my long-form Sanskrit memorization goals:

This pre-numbered Memory Palace example shows you how I prepared to memorize the Atma Bodha in full. I know the text and the number of each verse in an ancient Sanskrit text thanks to my favorite memory technique.

Step Five: Mentally Move Through Your Memory Palace A Few Times

Before putting information into your Memory Palace, navigate it a few times.

Exactly how many times is up to you, but I’d suggest at least five times so you’re really familiar with it.

As a best practice, find a quiet area. Close your eyes and start at the first station.

Move in a deliberate way from station to station in the Memory Palace to make sure each station is clear to you.

It’s okay to refer back to your drawing while practicing. That’s yet another reason why I strongly recommend you go through the simple planning phase. The exact journey you decided upon will be there for you to refer to if you need it.

How To Use A Memory Palace

As you’ve learned, the Memory Palace helps you associate information with specific areas within a familiar location. Laying out your associations is done using mnemonic images.

As you mentally walk through a location you’ve prepared, exactly how you place pieces of information and link them to associations simply involves using your imagination. Later, when you want to recall the information, you revisit your mental route, and the information will be easily accessible.

The technique is made more effective when you add surprising or out-of-the normal features to your associations.

For example, let’s assume you want to memorize this sequence of words:

• hero
• drill
• spacecraft
• music

To start encoding the first word on the list, you imagine a hero on the first station of the Memory Palace. You’ll need to use your imagination to learn the skill, but basically, this is what the technique looks like in my imagination:

But there’s a catch. The word “hero” is a bit vague.

To increase your ability to memorize and retain this word, you want to make the association more distinctive or unusual. Memory experts call this simple process “elaboration” or elaborative encoding. To elaborate any association in your Memory Palace:

• Exaggerate how the association moves
• Change the size of the image
• Distort the image
• Amplify its colors
• Add sounds, physical sensations and even tastes and smells

For example, you could imagine the hero in your Memory Palace banging his feet on the floor. Really exaggerate the image, so much that you can hear the banging and even smell the wood as the floor breaks apart.

There’s another way to make each association even stronger. For example, for a word like hero, you can add Hercules to the association you place in your Memory Palace. Because the sound of Hercules’ name and the word hero are similar, you can easily make the image sillier and more striking.

Let’s extend the example further for the next word on the list.

When you think of the next station in your Memory Palace, imagine that there is suddenly a drill next to the hero.

To increase the power of this mnemonic imagery, use the elaborate technique we just discussed. For example, you could imagine that the drill is turned on and you have to leap over it to avoid being hurt.

If you want to practice, memorize these words for yourself. Once you’re done with hero and drill, use your third station to imagine a spacecraft flying around inside your Memory Palace. You can elaborate it by exaggerating its movement, or having it do something silly like leave a trail of glitter.

Finally, you sit down on the couch, and as your bottom touches the cushion, your favorite song starts playing. You might even imagine the word “music” written on the cushion before you sit.

Again, exaggerate as much of the image as you can in order to make it more memorable. This will help ensure you recall the item when you revisit the Memory Palace during the recall phase.

Here’s a summary of the main steps above with a few additional details:

1. Draw a floor plan of a familiar location.
2. Create a journey that does not lead you into a dead end.
3. Make sure that your journey is linear so that you don’t create confusion by crossing your own path.
4. Don’t clutter your first Memory Palace by assigning too many stations.
5. Number each station and create a top-down list to help you mind remember the journey better and prepare for more advanced uses later.
6. Use your new Memory Palace as soon as possible by filling it with information that will improve your life.
7. Use the Memory Palace to invoke the Primacy Effect and Recency effect for each Magnetic Station by using the Serial-Positioning Effect and spaced repetition.
8. Create more Memory Palaces and repeat the process, always taking care to memorize information that makes your life better professionally and personally.

When it comes to using this technique specifically for studying, please see this detailed video tutorial I created for you:

https://youtu.be/c4J5ZUzCxZY

How to Combine the Memory Palace Technique With The Linking Method

In addition to using the Memory Palace journey to help you trigger associations to call back whatever you want to memorize, you can link your associations within the Memory Palace.

In other words, you can have the hero throw the drill at the spaceship. As I share in my post explaining how I memorize names at events, I use the room we’re in as the Memory Palace. Then I use associations that “link” together to make it faster and easier to recall all the names.

At this event, I created an impromptu Memory Palace from the room to memorize everyone’s name. I used associations for each person and linked some of the associations together. This was effectively using two mnemonic devices at the same time.

These are just a few examples. The trick is to select what you want to memorize and then start to explore how the technique works by coming up with associations and laying them out in your imagination.

It’s okay to make mistakes as you learn the technique. Just get curious about what you could do better and review the basic instructions to see if you’re missing any of the key steps.

Once you have one Memory Palace, you’re ready to create more and even link one Memory Palace to another. Here’s a tutorial showing how to do that, including some processes that will help “teleport” or shift from one Memory Palace to another with ease:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RzQzqauhhM

Quick Answers To Common Questions About
Successfully Placing Your Memories In Memory Palaces

As we’ve seen, the Memory Palace involves assigning stations in familiar locations.

Then, you take what you want to memorize and elaborate it by combining or pairing each piece of information with an association.

Over the years, many people have asked me questions like:

• How many pieces of information can I place in a Memory Palace?
• How do I “attach” the information to the stations?
• Can I place information in cupboards?
• Is it possible to create Memory Palaces spontaneously, or “on the go”?
• What if I can’t think of a proper location or am afraid I’ll run out of Memory Palaces?

Here are some rapid fire answers to these common questions.

How Much Information Can You Place In Memory Palaces?

I have some Memory Palaces with hundreds of words. For example, as I discussed in my TEDx Talk, I’ve memorized dozens of Sanskrit phrases as part of my researcher into the connection between memorization and mindfulness.

Generally, I like to let the project itself decide how much information will go inside each Memory Palace. The key is to get started and develop your own “mnemonic style” with using this technique.

How Do You Connect Information To The Memory Palace?

When it comes to “attaching” or “connecting” information to your stations, this is why I draw my Memory Palaces. The Memory Palace is always based on a location that is already in memory. The drawing helps me settle on the exact path I’ll follow. Then, I just have to stick with that path. In other words, the path itself is the connecting factor and the Memory Palace is like a piece of canvas I’m painting on.

Can You Expand Memory Palaces?

To expand or extend any Memory Palace, you certainly can open up drawers or cupboards to place more associations and remember more. Renaissance mnemonists likes Giordano Bruno and Robert Fludd talked about tactics like these.

In my personal experience, I have not found this approach particularly useful for most learning goals. Still, if you think it might be fun and useful to extend your Memory Palaces in this way, I encourage you to experiment with the strategy.

Should My Memory Palace Be Thematically Related To The Content?

You might be wondering if it will help to choose a Memory Palace that relates to the content that you want to memorize. For example, would you get better results to use your biology classroom for memorizing anatomy? Or would it be any easier to use a church as part of memorizing a prayer? You might also consider memorizing foreign language vocabulary related to cooking using a kitchen.

Some research on context-dependent memory does show that you can expect a benefit by pursuing such an approach. I certainly found it helpful to use many of the buildings on York University campus while studying there as the source of my Memory Palaces.

By all means, make use of thematic connections. However, you want to be so good with using the technique itself that you can use any Memory Palace to commit any type of information to memory at any time.

Is It Possible To Make A Memory Palace “On The Go”?

Yes, and I do this quite a bit. It’s especially useful for committing information during conversations.

Because spontaneous Memory Palace generation is a slightly separate skills, I’ve created this tutorial on how to create Memory Palaces on the fly, such as in restaurants while dining.

It even includes a live video tutorial where I spontaneously create a Memory Palace in a park to memorize the names of seasons in a different language.

What If I’m Worried About Running Out Of Memory Palaces?

This concern is so common, I created this detailed tutorial on how to find Memory Palaces.

In addition to all the possible options for your Memory Palaces that I listed above, I’m confident you’ll find that you never run out of options for using this wonderful memory technique.

The Definitive Guide To Reusing A Memory Palace

A lot of people ask me about using the same Mind Palace a second or third time.

It is possible, but the precise process can be more than a little finicky. To explain what I mean, please check out this thorough video guide on the topic:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Umt-innA-u8

As you can see, not even the most skilled memory experts reuse Memory Palaces. If you set yourself up correctly, it’s not really necessary.

That said, doubling up does make for great brain exercise, and that’s usually the way I treat the practice. I think it might have helped me experience a breakthrough with aphantasia, actually.

But what this question has taught me the most over the years is that many students of memory improvement put the cart before the horse. They worry about advanced skills before they’ve mastered the fundamentals – advanced skills that the pros have already determined might be great, but aren’t really worth using.

I recommend that you use at least a dozen, if not two dozen Memory Palaces to get the hang of how they work before worrying about reusing them. Following that principle helped me succeed when I innovated a way to reuse them with greater ease. Here’s a case study that shows you what I mean.

The Memory Palace I Re-Used Twice (Personal Case-Study)

Have a look at this Memory Palace example based on a neighborhood called Kelvin Grove in Brisbane, Australia:

I’ve used it three times for memorizing:

• The Upadesa Saram
• 32 verses of the Ribhu Gita
• My TEDx Talk

Frankly, I did manage to pull this off successfully and am very happy with the results. But if I were to do it again, I would not use the same Memory Palace over and over again. Certainly not for something important as a memorized public presentation.

Other (Potential) Problems With Reusing A Memory Palace

Although the following issue hasn’t happened to me, some people have issues with moving the furniture around in the rooms they base their Memory Palaces on.

In most cases, this shouldn’t be an issue once you have the fundamentals of this memory technique mastered. To do that, please make sure that you devote yourself to the loci method thoroughly and completely. It will serve you well for the rest of your life.

But another option is to simply not use furniture at all. If you look at the Kelvin Grove Memory Palace example above, you can see that most of it involves streets. In the few rooms that I did use, my loci were mostly the walls and corners.

I think of street corners and the architectural foundations of Memory Palaces as “Eternal Stations.” They’re very unlikely to change in the future. Using them makes this mnemonic method much more stable over the long term.

The Memory Palace Technique Is Not Necessarily Visual

Some people assume that this technique requires a vivid visual imagination. This is not correct and not the experience of my students or memory champion friends. That said, you can’t blame people for confusing iconic memory with the fantasy of photographic memory.

When done correctly using all of the Magnetic Modes, you can memorize a very large amount of information relatively quickly without necessarily seeing the Memory Palace in your mind.

Here’s an infographic to teach you all about the different ways that your brain perceives information in a multi-sensory way:

Keeping the full range of the Magnetic Modes in mind, you can use any home or location with which you are familiar.

You can even use small areas, such as the inside of a broom closet. You can even use your own body, attaching information to different limbs.

Just keep in mind that you don’t necessarily have to see the Memory Palace. You can feel it, hear it, taste it, smell it and even just think about it. I’ve even gone through some of my Memory Palaces and touched the walls I’ll be using to help make them more substantial in my imagination. This simple action has helped me a lot over the years.

For example, when I was asked to memorize some Shakespeare in real time on the Guru Viking Podcast, I used a Memory Palace I have interacted with physically many times. This level of mental processing helped make the memory demonstration successful. In fact, I recalled the lines I was asked to memorize from Julius Caesar perfectly.

If shifting from a visual to a multi-sensory Memory Palace seems odd, let me add a few more details. They will help you understand how seriously well this technique works when you add more levels of sensory elaboration.

The Science Behind the Memory Palace

Many studies have been conducted to analyze the effectiveness of the Memory Palace. It’s all based on the scientific fact that your brain and spatial memory perceive space as a kind of image. Space itself is a kind of sensory experience, so it’s well worth focusing on.

Check out this lecture with memory expert Stephen Kosslyn for more information about how that works:

https://youtu.be/FkhU7i8hRK4

Cool, right?

The answer is a resounding “yes!”

And it gets even better. In 2020, researchers Dr. David Reser and Tyson Yunkaporta conducted a study at Monash University with medical students. Using an Aboriginal variation of the Memory Palace technique, they demonstrated that learners equipped with this learning method recalled far more than students who did not.

Are There Any Alternatives To The Memory Palace?

Many people have asked me over the years to suggest alternatives to the Memory Palace technique.

Of course, you can just use raw mnemonics to create associations and not locate them with reference to a building.

The problem with doing that, however, is that you remove a strong link that will help you think back to the target information. That said, certain practitioners of the technique, especially in the Renaissance discussed using geometrical shapes as Memory Palaces. Here’s a full video tutorial on these approaches:

https://youtu.be/HAPwOf31N7o

One thing to observe when using geometrical shapes, is that a triangle is reflected in the letter A. Circles show up in the letters B and C, etc., suggesting that you can turn the alphabet itself into a kind of Memory Palace. In other words, all information is inherently spatial.

In my experience with exploring and experimenting with these alternative approaches to the Memory Palace technique, they help strengthen your understanding of traditional Memory Palaces.

But when it comes to using the technique to passing exams or learning languages, I do not play around with abstract Memory Palace. I stick with the fundamental approach that has served our ancestors for thousands of years. I recommend that you do the same.

No Need For A Huge IQ To Use A Memory Palace!

Over the years, some people have written to me that memory athletes and mnemonists must be smarter or have higher IQs than other people.

I don’t believe memory competitors are smarter or have bigger brains than the rest of us. It’s that they use mnemonics, and specifically the Memory Palace to memorize semantic information.

And they practice deliberately. That is the secret behind their impressive abilities. And because people who practice for a long time learn more about the techniques they’re using, that explains why they become really good (Maguire et al 2002).

This simple observation suggests that anyone with average abilities can use this technique to improve his/her memory. And scientists have shown that it’s well worth taking up the Memory Palace technique as a lifetime practice, especially when you consider the research on memory training with the elderly.

And once you know the drill, it’s really just a matter of spending some time with a few solid Memory Palace training exercises. Like these:

https://youtu.be/px1O-j3BIHo

Even if you are not seeking to learn large amounts of information, the Memory Palace still has something to offer. There’s even more evidence that the Memory Palace can help maintain a healthy brain during old age if you’d like to follow-up with the additional scientific references listed below.

As MMM student Sunil Khatri has explained, the Memory Palace is also great for language learning, including the difficulties of Japanese.

Personally, one of my favorite ways to practice the Memory Palace technique is to memorize playing cards, specifically for performing card magic. Whereas I used to practice the Mnemonica Stack, I’ve recently memorized the Redford Stack and am having a ton of fun with that.

It only takes me 2 minutes and 30 seconds to memorize a deck. And with a little practice based on how memory actually works, I’ll bet you can go even faster.

Ready to get started mastering the Memory Palace technique so you can enjoy learning more based on the spatial and multi-sensory nature of your mind?

Let’s do this thing!

Memory Palace References & Further Resources

Bower, G. H., “Analysis of a Mnemonic Device: Modern psychology uncovers the powerful components of an ancient system for improving memory” American Scientist, Vol. 58, No. 5, pp. 496-510, September–October 1970 Web. 21 Jan. 2016..

Engvig, Andreas, Anders M. Fjell, Lars T. Westlye, Torgeir Moberget, Øyvind Sundseth, Vivi Agnete Larsen, and Kristine B. Walhovd. “Effects of Memory Training on Cortical Thickness in the Elderly.” NeuroImage 52.4 (2010): 1667-676. 1 Oct. 2010. Web. 22 Jan. 2016.

Fan, Shelley. “Can a Mnemonic Slow Memory Loss with Age?” Scientific American Blog Network. 20 Mar. 2014. Web. 22 Jan. 2016.

Maguire, Eleanor A., Elizabeth R. Valentine, John M. Wilding, and Narinder Kapur. “Routes to Remembering: The Brains behind Superior Memory.” Nature Neuroscience Nat Neurosci 6.1 (2002): 90-95. Web. 22 Jan. 2016.

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