One of my memory palaces is a 100 station driving route. In my city I chose one city road which I used a lot and every signal or square on that road is my station. I have 100 squares on that route which I have fixed. I use this journey to revise my P from PAO list. I also have aphantasia and remember roads and routes quite well.
Later when needed I can use all these squares as individual memory palaces with 10 to 15 stations for further use.
Hmm, interesting! Maybe I will do a driving route memory palace after all.
I now have an effortless image of my medical insurance number. As it happens, all of it is encodeable using the Dominic numbers I’ve got so far. I put the two vivid images into a hospital to help me remember what it is for (and it’s appalling to think of such horrible goings-on in a hospital, of all places!)
I’ve started practicing with names and faces. It’s kinda hard doing that in a pandemic, but the NameShark app has some sample faces and names to practice on, so I’m doing that. Of all the memory disciplines, this is the one that seems the most useful to me, and I’d love to emerge from pandemic isolation and not embarrass myself when I meet new people. I did, in fact, meet a new person today, and I made a special effort to keep his name in mind and use the techniques I learned. We’ll see if I recognize him when I see him again.
I’d love to find some sort of system to keep my to-do list and calendar organized. It’ll probably be some sort of memory palace in my office.
I’ve picked my memory journey for “Hamlet” and got myself started. Still puzzling over how best to encode each scene in a way that makes sense and will jog my memory in the right way. But at least I know where to put all of it. I decided to use a walking route after all, and one near my former home. I looked it up on Google Earth to jog my memory of it a bit.
Pondering a memory-based calendar and how that would work for me. I need to know about two months’ worth of deadlines for my work. There aren’t that many in each month, but I do need to know what they are. I don’t yet have all the Dominic numbers encoded for 1-31, so this will probably have to wait until that is done. (the closest upcoming deadline is 5/26 and I don’t have a character for 26 yet). But I have started pondering what mnemonic images to use for different months.
I’m already pretty much done memorizing “One Art”, and it didn’t take me anywhere near as long as my first poetry memorization attempt for another villanelle.
Pondering how, and how often, to review all this stuff I’m stuffing into my head, to avoid fading. I tend to review the poetry as I walk around on my daily walk, and tend to practice the Dominic numbers in between the poems, as I look at license plates and house numbers. If I’m going to keep a calendar in my head, it will definitely need regular review and accuracy checks, and that might need to be a different ritual, adhered to much more seriously.
In fact, in the spirit of “Memory Craft”, I might actually create a “get to work” ritual that involves a ritual review of the memorized calendar with all the upcoming deadlines. A song and dance and some burning of incense, maybe? It’s at times like this that I’m glad I work at home.
My daughter wants to see Enheduanna’s Tree and Homer’s Fire Hydrant. I think I have found the perfect way to conduct our homeschool history class.
Continuing to ponder the Hamlet memorization project. Thinking about how to encode Act 1, Scene 1 in the loci I picked. This is taking forever, and I keep telling myself that yes, I could read the entire play in the time it’s taking me to encode and “save” one scene, but then none of it would stick. I have, after all, read the play multiple times in my lifetime. I remember virtually none of it.
But it is taking forever. I probably should have built up to “Hamlet” by memorizing shorter works first, or at least works with fewer beautiful quotations that I want to memorize verbatim.
The calendar memorization project is going much better. It helps that with the pandemic and working part-time, I really don’t have a terribly packed calendar. I only have three items worth remembering for May, so it’s not like this is a terribly effortful thing to do. But now my brain is getting a bit more of a workout, at least.
Wow. This is so encouraging and inspiring. Wish you all the very best. Not having started (I am still getting past the ridiculous) I am motivated. Thanks!
Thanks for the kind words! Don’t be afraid of the ridiculous - this is, really, how the brain remembers. The sillier the image, the better you’ll remember it. Think of it; what sticks in your mind better - the number 240 or the image of a hang-glider pilot flying on a donut? Ridiculous, geo-tagged images are how your brain organizes information naturally. We are programmed to remember unusual things and to remember where things happened.
And you don’t need to tell anyone what the images are. 
I’m trying out a new calendar system for remembering appointments. The problem here is not just knowing when/what the appointments are, but remembering to remember them. So, I’ve decided to use a ring - just one of the rings from my jewelry box - as the reminder to remember that I had an appointment that day. Then, I would attach the relevant information to the ring. I tried it out today - put on the ring first thing in the morning and worked hard to attach the relevant information to it. I guess it worked (I remembered it), though the real test will be whether it works reliably every time. I have another appointment tomorrow, already encoded in my mental calendar, and I will put on the ring in the morning to remind myself of it. (and take it off when the appointment is done)
Pondering how to handle my task list and deadlines, which should be handled differently from appointments, but which also need a “reminder” function. But for now, just letting the “magic appointment ring” idea settle in and get comfortable.
I took my daughter on the History Walk today, and showed her Enheduanna’s Tree and Homer’s Fire Hydrant. She loved it, and immediately wanted to know what all the other trees and lampposts and features were. I’m going to have to read up more on history to assign some more of the trees and lampposts and other stuff.
I’ve recently restarted my training. I’m disappointed that I waisted so much time. Reading through your journey, seeing the struggles, thought processes and successes are inspiring. I admire the applications to your daily life. I look forward to getting the joy you and Lynne Kelly have when you store information you love in your mind. Thank you for sharing.
Thanks. I’m glad you find the blatherings interesting. I hope you find your training as useful and rewarding as I have been.
I think I’ve managed to encode Act 1, Scene 1 of Hamlet, in one city block. Relating the events to the location in which they were encoded made the method work better. The next scene will be the next block.
Continuing to experiment with the Magic Appointment Ring. I have an appointment at 5:30 today. The ring has a cute little stone in the middle and two symmetrical textured features around it. I “placed” the subject matter of the appointment on the stone (pretending it was a crystal ball where I could see the event take place), and the time on the textured features. Basically, using it as a lukasa. I find rings uniquely annoying and irritating, so I keep fiddling with the thing while it’s on my finger, and thus, reminding myself of the appointment.
My next appointment is on June 9, so that will be the real test of the system - whether I can retain the information for that long and remember to put on the ring on the right day.
Done with Act 1, Scene 2 of Hamlet, and also memorized an unrelated sonnet today. The poetry memorization is getting pretty fast.
While not directly related to memory training, the other “unstupiding” projects are doing well too. I’m getting faster at mental math, and I have also resolved to stop using my GPS while getting around town. I review the map ahead of time and then drive. That resulted in an immediate improvement in my mental map of the town and in my knowing where things are.
Still pondering how to “unstupid” my to-do list and pending project list.
I’m really coming to realize this is just as much about “mental fitness” as my exercise regimen is about physical fitness. While I’ve always paid attention to staying physically fit, from the mental standpoint, my brain is a couch potato who can’t walk more than 10 steps without getting winded. I’ve used smartphone crutches for just about any mental task, for way too long. Giving up these crutches feels surprisingly good. (My screen time on my phone has gone down dramatically)
Speaking of giving up the smartphone crutch, I’m experimenting with a different N-Back exercise - a purely mental one with no smartphone involvement. It’s single N-back - basically numerical manipulation that requires you to keep a constantly updated list of 4 numbers in working memory. Today, I set a timer for 5 minutes and went at it. It was surprisingly hard.
Hmm…I have been thinking about a similar thing! Well, about how to remember birthdays, actually ^^ I haven’t tried anything out yet, but maybe it could add to your ideas!
My thought was to create an image for the date and an image for the the (in your case) appointment. And then, you somehow link the two together in such a way that when you think of the date, you are reminded of the appointment - and when you think of the appointment, you are reminded of the date.
In that way, when you think: “Hmm…what do I have to do this month?” and mentally run through the dates of the month in your mind, the image of each appointment will ping up when you reach the associated date. At the same time, when you wonder: “Okay, I need to do this thing. Until when is it due again?” you will be able to answer that question through the link and image. (In my case, I wanted to be able to think of the person and know their birthdate, but also be able to think of a date and know whom’s bithday it is.)
Also, maybe you don’t need all the Dominic numbers to do this. Perhaps you could just wing it, at least until you have all the numbers you need. Say you have task on the May 31st. Maybe the 31st reminds you of Halloween and Tulpits remind you of May. Then you could have an image in your mind of Tulpits growing out of a gigantic Jack-O-Lantern and link that to the image of your task. I am not sure if this would be confusing at all 
I really like your idea of the Magic Appointment Ring! I like how you didn’t wait for a perfect system to roll around, but tried to figure out what would work for you and then began implementing it and experimenting with it right away. That’s cool 
Hmm, yeah - I’ve been thinking about something like that. I have to “look ahead” about 3 months for my deadlines, but there aren’t that many, so this is something I can easily keep in my head (I’m in the early stages of rebuilding my law practice after a long hiatus, so things are slow right now). The trick is to review it often enough that it does not fade or distort, so there may be a “get to the office” ritual that involves reviewing all the upcoming deadlines and to-dos, with the right images attached to each one.
I’ve been reading “Songlines: The Power and Promise”, and now I am thinking about how to incorporate song and music into my memory training; and also, pondering rituals. I’m Jewish, and while my people are not as ancient as Australian Aborigines (I can’t even imagine 65,000 years of history - it blows my mind to think of it), there is still a fair amount of history (about 3,000 years), and the way that many of the stories are remembered is by yearly holidays that commemorate each story, and by the ritual retelling of the story.
And speaking of Jewish history, I added a couple of significant Jewish dates to my History Walk today. The emotional resonance of it was immediate and amazing to feel. I had no emotional connection to the other dates and people I’d had in there before; it was just facts to stuff my memory with - but somehow, I felt something at the Babylonian Exile lamppost (586 BCE). This was about my people, my ancestors, and their grief at losing their country and their sacred temple. It became personal.
Continuing to memorize Hamlet, and being more and more tempted to try to memorize it verbatim. I know I can’t, at present, not with the lack of memory training I’ve got so far. But I really want to.
The History Walk is coming together well, and I put in a couple more dates there. It’s such a cool way to experience history. They really ought to teach it that way in schools.
Pondering if the way to get some verbatim bits into my memorization of “Hamlet” should be by using the alphabet or number peg method at the location in question. Trying to memorize a monologue using a peg method, and remember what scene it’s in according to the journey method. We’ll see what happens. For some reason, the monologue I want to memorize is taking a while to stick in my head.
The kid and I did the History Walk together today. She laid a flower at the Babylonian Exile lamppost to commemorate how sad that event was. We also found Hesiod’s Tree and talked about farming in Ancient Greece.
I just joined today and read your posts, thank you! I am also in my 40s and have a young daughter whom i’d like to teach these techniques to. I first have to get used to these myself.
You can learn together! That’s what my daughter and I are doing. She loves making up silly images to go with grocery lists, and she’s very good at using the loci method for poetry memorization. I’m maybe about one step ahead of her, so this is a joint learning experience for the two of us, and it makes it more fun.
Still running into a big huge snag in my Hamlet memorization project. I either need a different place with more loci to put it, or I need a better peg method, or more vivid images, or I need something other than what I’m doing, because it’s not working. It’s weird, because the poetry I memorize sticks in my head like glue, but these gorgeous monologues are not.
Sigh. “How all occasions do inform against me,” indeed.