The Memory Palace Technique: How To Build Your First One in 20 Minutes

You walk into your childhood bedroom and immediately see a giant elephant wearing a top hat, juggling three flaming torches. At your desk, Albert Einstein is solving equations whilst eating a slice of pizza. In the corner, a medieval knight is having a sword fight with a rubber duck.

This isn’t a fever dream. It’s the memory palace technique in action, and it might be the most powerful learning tool you’ve never used.

The memory palace technique transforms locations you know well into mental filing systems where information sticks. Ancient Greek and Roman orators used it to deliver hours of speeches without notes. Modern memory champions use it to memorise thousands of digits. And you can use it to remember anything from exam content to shopping lists.

This guide shows you how to build your first memory palace in the next 20 minutes, starting with the basics and building to practical applications you can use immediately.

What Is the Memory Palace Technique?

The memory palace technique (also called the method of loci) is a memory strategy that stores information by placing mental images in specific locations within an imagined space. You create a mental journey through a familiar place, position vivid images representing what you want to remember at specific points along that journey, and later recall the information by mentally retracing your steps.

The technique works because your brain naturally excels at remembering spatial information and visual imagery. When you combine something abstract you need to learn with a concrete location you know well, you create a powerful mental association that’s far easier to retrieve than trying to memorise information in isolation.

The Ancient Origins

According to legend, the Greek poet Simonides of Ceos discovered this technique around 500 BCE after surviving a building collapse at a banquet. When called upon to identify the crushed bodies of fellow guests, he realised he could remember exactly who had been sitting where by mentally reconstructing the seating arrangement. This spatial memory proved more reliable than trying to recall faces alone.

Roman orators like Cicero refined the technique, using it to memorise lengthy speeches by mentally walking through buildings and associating different parts of their oration with specific architectural features. The method remained a cornerstone of rhetoric and education for centuries.

Why It Works: The Science

Your brain’s hippocampus specialises in spatial navigation and consolidating memories. Research shows it activates strongly when processing location-based information. Memory champions who use this technique don’t have superhuman brains—brain scans show they simply engage spatial memory regions more effectively than untrained individuals.

A 2017 study published in Neuron found that after just six weeks of memory palace training, ordinary people showed brain activity patterns similar to elite memory athletes. The technique literally rewires how your brain processes and stores information.

How to Build Your First Memory Palace

Building a memory palace isn’t complicated, but it does require following specific steps. Here’s the exact process that works whether you’re memorising vocabulary, presentations, or exam content.

Step 1: Choose Your Location (2 Minutes)

Select a place you know intimately. Your home is ideal for beginners because you can visualise every detail without effort. Other good options include your workplace, a regular walking route, or even your childhood home if you remember it clearly.

The key criterion is familiarity. You should be able to mentally walk through this location with your eyes closed, knowing exactly what you’ll encounter at each point.

Start small. A single room is perfect for your first memory palace. You can expand to entire houses or buildings once you’ve mastered the basics.

Step 2: Define Your Mental Route (3 Minutes)

Plan a logical path through your chosen location. In a bedroom, you might enter through the door, move clockwise around the room, visiting the wardrobe, desk, bed, and window in order.

Your route must be consistent and unambiguous. You’ll always follow the same path, never crossing back on yourself or skipping locations. This consistency is crucial because it provides the structure that makes retrieval reliable.

Identify 5-10 distinct “stations” along your route—specific pieces of furniture, architectural features, or memorable spots where you’ll place mental images. Breaking information into manageable groups using the chunking method can help you organise what you’ll place at each station. In that bedroom example, your stations might be:

1. The door handle
2. The wardrobe
3. The desk
4. The bookshelf
5. The bed
6. The window
7. The bedside table

Step 3: Mentally Walk Your Route (5 Minutes)

Close your eyes and practise your mental journey several times. Start at your first station and move methodically to each subsequent point, noting the distinctive features of each location.

This rehearsal cements the route in your mind, making it automatic. When you later add information to these stations, you won’t waste mental energy trying to remember what comes next—your brain will know the path instinctively.

Walk your route forwards, then try it backwards. Both directions should feel natural before you proceed to adding information.

Step 4: Convert Information into Memorable Images (5 Minutes)

This is where the memory palace technique transforms from simple to powerful. You need to convert abstract information into concrete, vivid mental imagery.

Let’s say you’re memorising a shopping list: bread, milk, tomatoes, cheese, and coffee. For each item, create an exaggerated, unusual mental image:

• Bread: A massive loaf, still steaming, three times larger than normal
• Milk: A milk bottle with arms and legs, dancing
• Tomatoes: Bright red tomatoes bouncing like tennis balls
• Cheese: A wheel of cheese rolling away like a tyre
• Coffee: A coffee cup overflowing, spilling everywhere

Make your images bizarre, exaggerated, or emotional. The stranger the image, the more memorable it becomes. Your brain pays attention to unusual things and tends to forget the mundane.

Step 5: Place Images at Your Stations (5 Minutes)

Now connect each mental image to a specific station in your memory palace. Using our bedroom example:

1. Door handle: The massive steaming loaf of bread is wedged in the door, blocking your entry
2. Wardrobe: The dancing milk bottle is performing on top of the wardrobe like it’s a stage
3. Desk: Bouncing tomatoes are hitting your desk like a game of table tennis
4. Bookshelf: The wheel of cheese is rolling along your bookshelf, knocking books over
5. Bed: Coffee is overflowing from a cup sitting in the middle of your bed, soaking the sheets

The placement should involve interaction between the image and the location. The bread isn’t just near the door—it’s blocking it. The milk isn’t on the wardrobe—it’s dancing on top of it. This interaction strengthens the association.

Recalling Information from Your Memory Palace

Retrieval is straightforward once you’ve built your palace. Simply take your mental walk again, visiting each station in order. As you arrive at each location, the image you placed there will spring to mind, and with it the information you encoded.

Walking to the door, you encounter the massive bread blocking your way. At the wardrobe, you see the milk bottle performing. On the desk, tomatoes bounce. Along the bookshelf, cheese rolls. And on the bed, coffee overflows.

The spatial structure does the heavy lifting. You don’t need to consciously remember what comes next—your familiarity with the location handles that automatically. You simply need to decode the images back into the information they represent. This is active recall practice at work—mentally walking through your palace forces genuine retrieval rather than passive recognition.

Strengthening Recall Through Practice

For information you need to retain long-term, walk through your memory palace multiple times using spaced repetition schedules:

• Immediately after creating it
• One hour later
• Later that day
• The next day
• Three days later
• One week later

Each mental walk strengthens the associations, moving information from short-term to long-term memory. The technique isn’t about permanent storage—it’s about creating a reliable system for rehearsal and recall.

Making Images More Memorable

Not all mental images stick equally well. The most effective images share specific characteristics that make them unforgettable.

Exaggeration

Make things abnormally large or small. That loaf of bread isn’t normal-sized—it’s huge. The dancing milk bottle isn’t subtly swaying—it’s doing a full Broadway routine.

Movement

Static images are forgettable. Add motion to everything. The tomatoes bounce, the cheese rolls, the coffee flows. Action captures attention and aids memory.

Unusual Combinations

Pair things that don’t belong together. Milk bottles don’t normally dance on wardrobes. That incongruity makes the image stick.

Emotional Connection

Images that trigger emotions—whether humour, disgust, or surprise—lodge more firmly in memory. A coffee cup peacefully sitting on a bed is forgettable. An overflowing cup ruining your bedsheets creates a mild emotional response that aids recall.

Sensory Details

Engage multiple senses beyond just vision. Imagine the smell of the fresh bread, the coldness of the milk bottle, the squelch of the tomatoes, the waxy texture of the cheese, the bitter aroma of the coffee. The more sensory details you include, the richer and more memorable the association becomes.

Practical Applications

The memory palace technique adapts to almost any memorisation challenge. Here’s how to apply it to common situations.

Learning Vocabulary

Convert foreign words into memorable images using sound-alike associations. The French word “chat” (cat) sounds like “shah.” Place an image of a Persian shah petting a cat at your first station. The German word “Schmetterling” (butterfly) sounds like “shattering.” Imagine a butterfly shattering into pieces like glass.

Remembering Presentations

Assign each main point of your presentation to a station. For a presentation on climate change with five key points—rising temperatures, sea level rise, extreme weather, ecosystem disruption, and human impact—you’d create five images representing these concepts and place them sequentially in your memory palace.

During your talk, mentally walk your route. As you reach each station, its image triggers your next point, keeping your presentation flowing naturally without notes.

Memorising Lists and Sequences

Any ordered information works perfectly with this technique. Study notes, historical dates, procedure steps, or mathematical formulas can all be converted into images and sequenced spatially.

Names and Faces

When meeting new people, create a quick mental image connecting their name to a distinctive physical feature, then place that image at a station. After the event, walking through your memory palace recreates each encounter in sequence. This combines particularly well with specific techniques for remembering people’s names at networking events.

Common Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

Mistake 1: Choosing Unfamiliar Locations

Using a location you don’t know well creates unnecessary cognitive load. Your brain spends energy trying to remember the location itself rather than the information you’ve stored there. Stick to places where you could walk around in pitch darkness without hesitation.

Mistake 2: Creating Vague Images

Generic images don’t stick. “A cat” is forgettable. “Your neighbour’s ginger cat wearing a tiny crown, meowing the national anthem” is memorable. Specificity and absurdity win.

Mistake 3: Rushing the Process

Building a memory palace properly takes time initially. Trying to memorise information before your route feels automatic undermines the entire technique. Invest the upfront time establishing your location and route, and the payoff comes in effortless recall later.

Mistake 4: Crossing Your Own Path

Routes that double back on themselves create confusion. Always move in one clear direction—clockwise, left to right, or following a natural flow through the space. Never create a path where you might second-guess which station comes next.

Mistake 5: Reusing Locations Too Soon

While you can eventually reuse memory palaces, doing so before the original information has consolidated into long-term memory creates interference. For learning you need to retain, use fresh locations. Reuse works better for temporary information like shopping lists.

Building Multiple Memory Palaces

One memory palace can hold significant information, but serious users develop networks of dozens or even hundreds of locations.

Start simple with 5-10 memory palaces based on locations like:

• Your current home (different rooms can be separate palaces)
• Your childhood home
• Your workplace
• Your regular gym or exercise location
• A friend or family member’s house you know well
• Your regular commute route
• A favourite restaurant or café
• Your school or university buildings

As you become comfortable with the technique, you’ll spot potential memory palaces everywhere. Any location you’ve visited repeatedly can become part of your network.

Who Benefits Most from Memory Palaces?

While anyone can use this technique, certain situations make it particularly valuable.

Students preparing for exams benefit enormously, especially when dealing with subjects requiring recall of specific facts, dates, or terminology. Medical students use memory palaces to learn anatomy, drug names, and diagnostic criteria. Law students memorise case law and legal principles.

Professionals who present regularly—teachers, speakers, consultants—use memory palaces to deliver talks confidently without notes, maintaining natural eye contact with audiences.

Language learners accelerate vocabulary acquisition by creating memorable associations between new words and mental images positioned in familiar locations. The memory palace works particularly well alongside other evidence-based learning strategies to create a complete learning system.

Anyone studying later in life who finds traditional rote learning increasingly difficult discovers that the memory palace technique works with, not against, how mature brains naturally operate. The spatial component plays to strengths that often remain robust even as other memory functions decline.

Take Your First Mental Walk

The memory palace technique isn’t magic—it’s a structured method for leveraging your brain’s existing strengths. You already remember locations effortlessly. This technique simply converts that spatial ability into a general-purpose learning tool.

Right now, you could build your first memory palace in 20 minutes. Choose a familiar room, define a simple route with 5-7 stations, and try memorising a short list. The immediate results will surprise you.

With practice, the process becomes faster and more natural. What takes 20 minutes initially soon takes 5 minutes, then 2 minutes. The technique that ancient orators spent years perfecting becomes a reliable tool you can deploy whenever memorisation challenges arise.

Your first memory palace awaits. The door is open—step inside.

I’m Simon Shaw, a Chartered Occupational Psychologist specialising in learning and memory techniques. I’ve taught the memory palace method to students, professionals, and memory enthusiasts for over a decade. The approach in this article reflects both classical technique and modern cognitive science research.