If you want to live a memorable life, you have to be the kind of person who remembers to remember. Joshua Foer
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Choose Your Palace
First and foremost, you’ll need to pick a place that you’re very familiar with. The effectiveness of the technique relies on your ability to mentally see and walk around in that place with ease. You should be able to ‘be there’ at will using your mind’s eye only. A good first choice could be your own home, for example. Remember that the more vividly you can visualize that place’s details, the more effective your memorization will be.
Also, try to define a specific route in your palace instead of just visualize a static scene. So, instead of simply picturing your home, imagine a specific walkthrough in your home. This makes the technique much more powerful, as you’ll be able to recall items in a specific order, as we’ll see in the next step. Here are some additional suggestions that work well as Memory Palaces, along with possible routes:
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List Distinctive FeaturesNow you need to pay attention to specific features in the place you chose. If you picked a walkthrough in your home, for example, the first noticeable feature would probably be the front door. Analyze the room methodically (you may define a standard procedure, such as always looking from left to right, for example). What is the next feature that catches your attention? It may be the central table in the dining room, or a picture on the wall.
Continue making mental notes of those features as you go. Each one of them will be a “memory slot” that you’ll later use to store a single piece of information. |
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Imprint the Palace on Your MindFor the technique to work, the most important thing is to have the place or route 100% imprinted on your mind. Do whatever is necessary to really commit it to memory. If you’re a visual kind of person, you probably won’t have trouble with this. Otherwise, here are some tips that help:
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Associate!Now that you’re the master of your palace, it’s time to put it to good use. There’s a ‘right way’ of doing visual associations: "Make it crazy, ridiculous, offensive, unusual, extraordinary, animated, nonsensical — after all, these are the things that get remembered, aren’t they? Make the scene so unique that it could never happen in real life. The only rule is: if it’s boring, it’s wrong."
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Visit Your PalaceAt this point, you are done memorizing the items. If you’re new to the technique, though, you’ll probably need to do a little rehearsal, repeating the journey at least once in your mind. If you start from the same point and follow the same route, the memorized items will come to your mind instantly as you look at the journey’s selected features. Go from the beginning to the end of your route, paying attention to those features and replaying the scenes in your mind. When you get to the end of your route, turn around and walk in the opposite direction until you get to the starting point.
In the end, it’s all a matter of developing your visualization skills. The more relaxed you are, the easier it will be and the more effective your memorization will be. |
References
Develop perfect memory with the memory palace technique. (2013). Litemind. Retrieved from http://litemind.com/memory-palace/.
Joshua Foer: Feats of memory anyone can do. (2012). TED. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/joshua_foer_feats_of_memory_anyone_can_do.html.
Speakers Joshua Foer: Writer. (2012). TED. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/speakers/joshua_foer.html.
Joshua Foer: Feats of memory anyone can do. (2012). TED. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/joshua_foer_feats_of_memory_anyone_can_do.html.
Speakers Joshua Foer: Writer. (2012). TED. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/speakers/joshua_foer.html.