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Wouldn’t it be awesome if you could create a Memory Palace on the go?
This goal is quite different from traditional Memory Palace development – the kind where you build Memory Palaces for learning languages, passing exams or beefing up on your historical knowledge.
When it comes to spontaneously developing this ancient mnemonic tool…
I’m talking about rapidly developing a responsive mnemonic tool that lets you hear a word or phrase and instantly learn, remember and then recall it forever just by thinking of that place.
Here’s the good news:
Making a Memory Palace “on the go” is fun and easy to do.
You just need to know the principles of the Magnetic Memory Method.
If that sounds good to you, let me take you on the road with me. On this page, I’ll show you exactly how I create impromptu Memory Palaces on the go in a variety of locations and situations.
How to Create An Impromptu Memory Palace In A Restaurant
Or At An Event (A Case Study)
You can build a Memory Palace in a restaurant, just as I discussed in this video shot in Berlin:
Step One: Quickly Assess The Plan Of The Location
When creating a Memory Palace on the fly, you can’t afford to make the kind of Memory Palace drawing I normally advise. These Memory Palace examples show you what I mean in detail, in case you’ve never used the Memory Palace drawing approach before.
Instead of making a quick sketch, or trying to find a Memory Palace by drawing on both your autobiographical memory and semantic memory, sometimes you need to develop Memory Palaces wherever you happen to be.
To do this, I suggest you simple glance quickly around the location. Then, formulate a plan for how you’re going to use the space based on linear logic.
In locations like restaurants, I suggest you pay close attention to the walls and corners only. Establish these as you loci and design a linear journey that you will follow strictly.
When I was in this particular restaurant, as my wife threw out new words at me to memorize, I simply placed associations in the simplest and clearest possible stations in the spontaneously created Memory Palace.
Step Two: Lay Out Associations On A Station-By-Station Basis
There’s no time to be creative. You also can’t spend time on making complicated decisions in an impromptu Memory Palace.
For example, I used to frequently give memory demonstrations in office meeting rooms like this:
Having never seen the room until I stepped into it to demonstrate how easy it is to remember names, the stations I assigned simply follow where the people at the meeting were sitting.
For example:
- Haley is station one
- Allen is station two
- Sharon is station three
- Edward is staton four
- Nick is station five
- Etc.
In this case, where the people were sitting aligned perfectly with the walls. So it was easy to assign mnemonic images to each person based on their location in the room.
For Haley, the associative image was Halley’s comet. For Allen, I thought of an Allen Key, and so on.
In this particular case, I also used the linking method at the same time as the Memory Palace technique. It’s not just that Halley’s comet helps me remember the name of the person at the first station of the Memory Palace. I have this idea interact with the Allen Key.
To a certain extent, the story method is involved here as well. The difference between using stories and linking is kind of splitting hairs in my view, but here’s the important point:
Whether you call it linking or the story method, you’re using the techniques inside of a Memory Palace. And any location can serve as a Memory Palace within seconds. Just follow the linear nature of the location for best results.
Step Three: Be Flexible When Challenges Arise
Sometimes you need to create a spontaneous Memory Palace when there are no buildings in sight.
Using forests or parks as Memory Palaces is definitely more challenging than using a restaurant or meeting room. This is because the space is not as clearly defined.
However, I’ve used outdoor options often enough to learn a few tricks, so here are some basic tactics for your consideration.
I use 秋天 qiūtiān (Mandarin Chinese for “autumn”) in the following video tutorial as an example.
Although I struggled with the pronunciation at the beginning of this video (and even experienced a few rare seconds of frustration), the core memory technique set the stage for success. I still remember all of the seasons in Mandarin to this day.
Step Four: Look For Solid Loci Even In Unstable Locations
As you’ve seen, walking through a Berlin park with April, 秋天 came up. My eyes instantly searched for a place to create and secure a mnemonic image.
But not just any place. The most solid places possible within the park.
If you’re familiar with the method of loci, then you know just how essential this principle is for the serious memorizer.
That means you also know that not all Memory Palace stations are created equal. For example, stations in obscure and hard to measure places really don’t serve as well as stations with fixed features.
For this reason, if you’re in a park, look for corners and edges that create boundaries on a location. They often serve as bulletproof stations even in less distinct locations because they’re fixed. You can instantly zoom to them in your mind.
For this reason, avoid “loosey-goosey” stations. Don’t eyeball locations like, “halfway between those clumps of trees.” That will increase your cognitive load when you’re trying to find your way back to the target information.
Step Five: Relax And Let Your Mnemonic Images Arise
In the video example above, I initially had no idea what image I would create for 秋天. But I let a sense of relaxation overcome me and trusted the process to do its work. It’s all part of knowing how to memorize vocabulary.
And, of course, the Magnetic Memory Method delivered (as it always does).
Step Six: Finish Developing The Impromptu Memory Palace Later
The cool thing about a small impromptu Memory Palace like the one I created for 秋天 qiūtiān is that there are 3 more terms needed to complete my knowledge of the words for the seasons in Chinese.
冬天 dōngtiān for Winter
春天 chūntiān for Spring
夏天 xiàtiān for Summer
To memorize these addition words, I used four trees in the park. To each tree, I attached an association by using the standard Memory Palace technique after the fact. I thought back to the trees in the park and transformed them into standard stations, one of each season of the year.
- 冬天 dōngtiān. I won’t tell you what was going on with this image, but let’s just say I was not using a ding dong in combination with a snowy tree.
- 春天 chūntiān. For this I imagined Chewbacca chewing on a twenty dollar bill before spitting it out as rusty springs into the tea cup with burning yen.
- 夏天 xiàtiān. The t-sh-ya sound made it harder to get a clear image in play, but I imagined the band Twisted Sister playing Yahtzee with miniature, yet blazing hot suns.
In each case, the goal is to use the mnemonic imagery to bring back the sound and meaning of the words in the same stroke.
So although you can definitely accomplish a lot “on the go,” it’s best to combine spontaneous Memory Palace creation with follow up later.
When it comes to the names I memorize at events, I often follow up with spaced repetition after the demonstration. That way, when I run into the attendees on the street (which often happened while living in Brisbane), their names were in long-term memory.
Believe me: It feels great to be able to remember the names of people you have only met once and not seen for months on end. I tell the story of how this happened with my speaking coach Thomas Krafft on the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast.
Impromptu Memory Palaces Are Not For Everything
At the end of the day, you need to pick your battles. Impromptu Memory Palaces serve small sets of information like the seasons or days of the week well. But for anything larger than ten pieces of information, you might struggle.
Why?
Because the problem with Impromptu Memory Palaces is that you have to recreate them in your mind at the same time you’re recreating the images. That’s a lot of unnecessary pressure on your brain!
But if you use Memory Palaces based on real locations, you reduce the mental load. If you’re really good with Memory Palaces, you eliminate the load altogether.
If you don’t already know how to create the perfect Memory Palace, please consider completing this free Memory Kit. It will help you get the most out of the process.
But here’s the most important aspect to consider:
Success cannot take place for you without taking action. Please be sure to give this technique a try so you can feel for yourself just how well it works.
Post any questions you have below, and understand that the best questions come from experience and struggling a little bit with the process.
But this point is important:
Please do not overthink mnemonics. The answers come from taking action and using the techniques.
Overall, most of us need standard Memory Palaces, especially when it comes to learning tough subject where exactly how to practice memory techniques is of the utmost importance.
But anytime you need to memorize something on the fly, you now know exactly how to do it.
18 Responses
Hey Anthony
The videos are great, but you need better weather for your honeymoon:)
If you do memorize something wrong with your method is it then doubly hard to re-memorize it correctly because it is so firmly fixed in your mind? I mean, suppose it wasn’t Shania Twain’s hair, but Sinead Oconnor? That wouldn’t work at all?
Thanks for this great question, Mark!
Although I wouldn’t say that anything becomes “doubly hard” to re-remember correctly, the original impression can get in the way. It’s mostly a mindset issue and choosing to let the initial impression guide you to the correct re-impression.
This happens to me all the time, and all the more so in my current Chinese studies because I am doing it almost 100% based on oral study. That means I memorize what I hear, which isn’t necessarily what was uttered. But by using the initial foundation and re-shaping it when necessary, it’s like springing from one board to the next board instead of directly into the water.
As for Sinead O’Connor … her having hair would make things even more memorable, I suppose. It depends on what she looks like in the image of her one conjures up. Wearing a wig, or perhaps wearing Prince’s hair … who can say. It all comes back to mindset and not letting mistakes frustrate us. They are always opportunities to compound our way to the correct meanings and pronunciation as we use the techniques to place info into long term memory. 🙂
Sidelined by depression and anxiety, I find myself having more and more free time on my hands. Learning languages using the Magnetic Memory Method is – for me – a great way to make good use of my free time. Thank you, Anthony, for this inspiring post.
Glad you found this inspiring, Glenn. I think using memory techniques is one of the best way to relieve depression. There’s little that is so uplifting than being able to recall something using the simple power of the imagination.
What language – or languages – will be you be studying? 🙂
For impromptu palaces , you could use index numbered object associations (number, shapes, major method etc) together with the images you need to hook. That way you have capability to create and process larger impromptu palaces with little effort (the index objects is what you learnt long time ago).
Great point, Pelle. I sometimes refer to stations by number, but only for special reference with certain kinds of poetry or for experiments.
That said, if one wanted to work more to rigid standardization using regimented Memory Palace strategies like the Vaughn Cube, the Major Method or PAO could be very powerful for rapidly knowing each and every station by number in every Memory Palace you’ve ever created – including impromptu Memory Palaces.
You’d just add up based on the last station number, i.e. if my Chinese Seasons Memory Palace was MP 104 and started with station 10,003, I could have an image for the station that would tell me instantly it was the 10,003 station.
The extent to which that is practical is questionable, however. For practical purposes, I’ve already got this information in long term memory (though I’m not talking about the seasons very often, I must admit). I should still be able to reconstruct the words and I prefer saving the Major Method for recalling the correct tones (themselves subject to change depending where they fall in a sentence).
Thanks again for your great comment. I look forward to the next one! 🙂
Nice!
The reason why I habitually index (roughly at initial stage) memory palaces even new impromptu ones is to have redundant ways to access the information. This occurred in a very stressful period in life, when it was harder than usual to retrieve whatever needed. So I added index objects to watch for them and the spot.
Also interconnecting spots between different palaces as “portals/wormholes” or look at index and traverse all/many spots (with same index) in palaces at reviews, to make sure that the mind had many ways in to access the spots.
Now the indexing is just an ingrained bonus habit. One side effect is that now you can do a pao that actually is a p¹l¹ p²l² p³l³ (pⁿ = palace n … lⁿ = location n …) so likely you have more than 3 palaces, you can now quite quickly “see” the path through your palaces encoding quite long strings without extra cognitive load (once you decided your palace coding standard). My case, as redundant as I wish things: I have a indexed start palace (context dependent, for instance passwords) storing the paths, and a reminder object (for instance website,location,club) linked to the index.
This may seem overkill, but the advantage is it doesn’t need much tweaking for most general purpose random string memorization … Binary, decimals, ascii gets the same treatment here. And they are refumdantly accessed both from initial palace and its indexed association
It doesn’t sound like overkill to me, so I hope you will write a book about it. There are many people anxious for memory help with Ascii, for example. You would do them a great service! 🙂
Cool , thanks!
Maybe I could clarify why I think indexing is interesting at habitual level :
The main idea of object indexing locations is to have redundant ways to retrieve information. In behaviour it has like the ghost effect, the index object of a spot assists in both picking locations and links to knowledge associations . For systematic spaced repetitions you could traverse many/all palaces at indices (have a palace for ugly sisters indices) and sweep through spaced repetition (not only effectively , but also efficiently).
A side effect doing indexing habitually on most palaces is that you can memorize random password strings this way : Since you know you locations by heart, you can do something like:
p¹l¹ p²l² p³l³ … pⁿlⁿ (pⁿ= palace n , lⁿ = palace n).
A number/password is just a journey through sequence palaces and their spots. For instance you start having a memory palace for storing reminders/starters for your passwords (person,place,login etc association) then start the journey(s) that encodes your password. The principle works the same for binaries, decimals or ascii.
Another side effect on top of that is portals/wormholes in memory palaces to link together indices of different palaces. There you can encode at the spots, or have helper palace(s) for the wormholes/portals (map record and starter palace).
Okay, now I think I’m beginning to understand. It would be great to have an example based on something you’ve memorized or would memorize in this way – particularly on the point of using the structure for recall.
I have bought some of your products, but I don’t hear you talk about something that I think is important. In the Magnetic Memory Method, you suggest to learn vocabulary with a certain order in the location, which is a brilliant idea. But I have some practice issues with it.
When we add more and more information with this specific order in a location, at some moment, we haven’t enough space to place new information in this memory palace. So we can find in our mind and create other Memory Palace or use a painting to create more sub-location.
But if we place all the new vocabulary in the new Memory Palace we no longer respect the logic of that specific order.
And if we try to keep the logic order, we have to do daily mental effort to replace the vocabulary in the right order in the location which is another mental effort and can create ghost, confusion in our visualisation.
What is the best to choose? Respect the logic order or respect the location method (And don’t remove information)?
Great question, Muntu!
First off, as covered in depth in all my trainings, I always recommend that you use the Memory Palace to rehearse the information into long term memory. There is rarely a need to “renovate” a Memory Palace if you do this consistently. If you go this route, I recommend checking out the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast episode called How to Renovate a Memory Palace.
Ghosting doesn’t need to be an issue either. I talk about turning any confusion into a benefit in the podcast episode titled Beginner’s Guide to Overcoming The Ugly Sister Effect. I’ve been finding this lesson more and more important as I work on Chinese because of the extreme similarities and seeming-repetition of sounds. The Magnetic Memory Method Principle of Compounding is super-valuable in this context as well. My modification of O’Brien’s The Rule of Five is helpful here as well (though as I teach, it’s each memorizer’s personal modification of it for your purposes that will help the most based on your experiences with the MMM).
In sum, the best way to respect the order of vocabulary we place in our Memory Palaces is to use the Memory Palace for what the Magnetic Memory Method puts all of its specific creation principles to work for: Recall Rehearsal for long term retention. With The Big Five Of Language Learning – which applies to just about anything you want to learn as well – you can be much more certain that you will get permanent recall.
I hope this helps reduce the mental effort you’re concerned about and am convinced that it will. Anytime that you get information into long term memory, you’ve reduced cognitive overwhelm about as low as it can go. This accomplishment allows you to either create a new Memory Palace based on the same letter of the alphabet, reuse the Memory Palace and utilize the Ugly Sister Effect/Ghosting as a super-power or simply compound on the existing material as you wish.
In all cases, you will always win so long as you keep using the techniques, tracking your results and continuing to think strategically, ask great questions like these and continue living a life devoted to the art of memory.
Thanks again for the great question and I look forward to the next one.
By the way, have you seen the new private forum inside the Masterclass? Feel free to post your questions in there as well. I’m currently on my honeymoon, but will be hoping to regularly answer questions with video and other features for Masterclass members in the near future. 🙂
Hi Anthony. Just a quick note to inform you of how much
I enjoy your content and your work! As to a quick memory palace just today I had a priority list that I needed to
Complete. My solution. My car. All I needed was to use the front of it. Ac vents. Mirror. Stick shift. Radio. You get the idea.
From there it was simple matter of plugging each task visually into that location. Now as soon as I opened the door there in were the tasks that I could visually see and more importantly, reach out, Do and complete.
Thanks!
That’s so great to hear, Bruce – I appreciate you taking a moment to let me know that you’re putting these ideas into action!
“Reach out, do and complete.” Wise words to remember too.
Thanks again for your post. I look forward to your next contribution to the discussion about using memory techniques for memory improvement here on the blog! 🙂
I was searching for a method for short information and this is very useful. However, ever since I began with memory palaces for languages, I’ve been struggling with the number of locus available to use with new words. I wanna learn German and I bought a dictionary of 4000 words, but I don’t have enough locus for that huge numbers of words. What’s your advice, put the words in a mega memory palace ( I.E, a palace with 200 loci) or build a lot of little palaces (I.e., a palace with 20 loci)? I’m gonna get a copy of your book of the german vocabulary, but I’d really like to know if you have an extra resource for my problems.
Sorry if my grammar isn’t the best.
Regards from Mexico.
Thanks for this note, Daniel.
Once you have the book and have studied it and put the recommendations into action, you will never have problems finding enough Magnetic Stations to memorize vast amounts of vocabulary again. Anytime you feel “Memory Palace Scarcity” coming on, just go back to the book and you’ll be “reminded” of several techniques that will give you dozens more Memory Palaces to work with.
Can’t wait to hear more about your journey into memory and look forward to seeing some of the Memory Palaces you create! 🙂
Very interesting podcast Anthony, I learned a lot.
Thanks, James. I’m glad you checked it out.
Do you think you’ll have an opportunity to try this method out?