The method of loci: how to build your memory palace
The method of loci, or memory palace (the mind palace of Sherlock Holmes), works like this: take a route you know by heart, like your home, and leave in each room an image of what you want to remember. To recall it, walk through the rooms again.
That's it: the rest is practice. If you're curious where it comes from and why it works, there's an article on the history of the method of loci.
How to do it, in five steps
Pick a route you know by heart
Your home, from the front door to the bedroom, always in the same order. 5 rooms are enough to start. On the Practice page there's one ready to use.
Turn each thing into an image
Not the word “key”: a giant key, dripping, clanking. The more exaggerated, absurd or moving it is, the better it sticks.
Put it inside the room
The key is jammed in the front door and you can't get in. Take a couple of seconds to really see it there, with the room around it.
Move on to the next room
One image per room, always in the same order along the route.
To recall, walk the rooms again
Go back to the entrance in your mind and walk room by room: look at what's in each one. Don't try to remember the list, look at the rooms.
Example: a grocery list
Eggs, flour, soap, basil, tuna. Entrance: you slip on a floor covered in broken eggs. Hallway: a pile of flour reaching the ceiling. Living room: the sofa buried in soap foam. Kitchen: a giant basil bush growing out of the sink. Study: an enormous tuna swimming above the desk. Now close your eyes and walk in through the front door: it's all there.
Try it now
Two minutes: five words, five rooms, one at a time. The first time, we guide you step by step.
Start practicing →If it doesn't seem to work at first
- You're repeating the list. It's the most common mistake: if you repeat “key, candle, clock” you're using your usual memory, which tops out at 5–7 items. Don't repeat: look at the images in the rooms.
- Your images are generic. “A key” doesn't stick, “a giant key jammed in the door” does. Add size, movement, noise.
- Too many rooms too soon. Start with 5 and extend the route once it gets easy.
- Rooms that look alike. Two identical hallways blur the images: pick stops that are clearly different.
- The same palace for everything. If you use the same route for today's groceries and for something you want to remember long-term, the images collide. Keep separate palaces.
Once it gets easy
- Keep the habit with the daily challenge: a new list every day, the same for everyone.
- Move on to numbers with the major system and to cards with the PAO system and the deck of cards.
- Use the palace for studying: definitions, dates, lists for exams.