Hello all,
I’m curious to read the stories of those of you who have had your lives changed after becoming proficient with memory techniques and mneumonics.
Did you feel that you had a better understanding of the world? Did you feel more competent in your profession? Tell me anything and everything.
I’ll chime in. Prior to discovering mnemonics, I had a severely deficient autobiographical memory. I had only a very vague recollection of my life, if that. I faked my way through “Remember when” conversations.
Since mid-2021, I’ve been doing a mnemonics-based exercise that took me from a severely deficient autobiographical memory to a “better than most” autobiographical memory. I have a very good recollection of the past 5 years of my life. I intend to continue this for a lifetime, and it really has been a life-changing experience for me. I wish I’d started earlier.
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I actually have a similar issue. I don’t remember much about my life or rather I don’t have the best clarity in memory of my life. I’ve seen some friends who have recalled events that we were both there for and they have to tell me what I said in the situation. Glad to hear this.
I don’t imagine you were doing memory training for the purpose of having a better autobiographical memory so was it just an unintended benefit from the memory training?
I was mostly just playing around with memory training, not doing anything too serious, and then I came across Lembran Sar’s blog on “remembering every day that passes.” I started doing that and realized that this was the “prosthetic autobiographical memory” I didn’t know I needed.
I no longer remember day-by-day - I only lasted 3 years with that - but I am now doing about 4-5 images a month and using all the stuff I learned about mnemonics to store the information, and it’s been wonderful. I highly recommend it.
I have ADHD and I’m pretty sure it contributes to my terrible working memory. While learning how to study effectively using a memory palace I learned how to create a kind of mental scratch paper of sorts.
I use this for to do lists, phone numbers, directions, things I need to look into later, stray thoughts and even to take notes on important points in a conversation. This allows me to avoid interrupting people. It takes a few seconds do and it might be slower than typing something into my phone, but once it’s done I can reference the list faster than I can pull my phone out of my pocket.
I’m still practicing encoding on the fly but I’m super interested to see where this goes.
Can you go into more detail on how you structure the memory palaces for this?
I came up with the idea of a short term palace on my own and was later genuinely delighted to find out that the pros already do this. I was worried I had been too ambitious with the concept. I have not been able to find supplemental material like books on the matter but I got some advice on here from @limbo
Anyway here’s what I did. first I chose a location that had good memorys since I knew I’d be spending a lot of time here if it became permanent. I chose my grandparents house in Sebastopol California.
I then divided the house into 7 main rooms so I had one for each day of the week. Next I created 3 extensions(fantasy palace) for each room. I set it up so each room had about 12 loci or so with which to place quick images. In total that’s about 28 rooms which is pretty close to a months time between each use. The plan is that if the images have not been erased in a month they will have become weak enough to write over.
I try not to place any information in the next days room if I can avoid it. I don’t want to spend too much time in the same room because it will make the associations stronger than intended. They were only ment to exist for 24 hours so that the palace system could be reused indefinitely.
To that end I spend 5 to 10 seconds placing the image and then I review it after 1 min and again after 10 min. I periodically check my to do list throughout the day as I would on my phone. That’s more than enough reinforcement.
(A side note for making fantasy palaces)
I used Fantasy palaces because I didn’t know if the ghosting effect was going to be a problem. The idea was that a new one could replace the one full of ghosts without sacrificing a more important room.
I may go back and change that but building from scratch was a good visualization exercise and it really helped me.
Sometimes the furniture is difficult to create from scratch because the brain knows it’s never existed and is based off nothing. So I reinforce it by sculpting it into existence.
With my eyes closed I move my hands in real life kind of like a mime. I trace the corners with my finger, slide my palm across the surface, pound the side with a fist and sometimes push to feel the weight. I imagine the texture while making the physical motions.
I only have to do that for stuff that won’t stick and Iv gotten to the point where I don’t need to make the motions to “feel” it if I don’t want to. This can be applied to walls as well when making the room.
That was very long but I hope it helped.
I’d appreciate any suggestions from people who have tried anything similar. I may try replacing the fake rooms with alternate versions of the real one but I have not practiced that skill enough yet.
Getting into memory techniques genuinely changed how I approach learning. I started with basic mnemonics and the method of loci, mostly to help with studying, but over time it became a tool I use daily from remembering names and tasks to absorbing new topics faster.
One unexpected benefit was how much more confident I felt at work. Being able to recall things quickly during meetings or while solving problems made me feel sharper and more in control. It’s not magic, but it definitely gives you an edge.
Also, the process of building memory palaces and visual associations made me think more creatively in general. It’s like training your brain to see connections you might’ve missed before.
Would love to hear how others have used it too!
I’m still early in my journey. However, they have given me hope. I haven’t had that in a long time. Hope I can learn new things. Things many others take for granted like maths, grammar, other languages etc.
Before learning about the memory palace (specifically), I was almost at a stage of giving up educating myself. Now there is a way I can remember.
The few things I’ve committed to memory palaces I can still recall. I dont have to consistently think about them. It’s like the knowledge has become part of me.
Hi. I don’t know if I had something like that. But maybe. How you use your palace? It’s real o imaginary?
Mate that’s amazing, it wasn’t too much info don’t worry because it was absolutely fascinating.
As a self discovered sufferer of ADHD with sons that also have it I will definitely give this a go and pass it on to them.
There’s three people your post has helped, and no doubt there are others that have read your post.
Keep up the good work! 