How to Map a Powerful Memory Palace

Posted on by Kimberly

The 4 Step Process to Mnemonic Image Building

We’ve all heard about neuro- hacks and frankly hacking into our brains is one of the best ways to build better habits.  In this post I’ll discuss one of my favorite hacks, Mapping your Memory Palace.  Memory Palace techniques incorporate the use of our brain’s visual center. The mnemonic image building help us build the mind castles of our dreams. A blueprint for our “What’s Next.”


Now, I’d love to take credit for this blueprint, but I have to give credit where credit is due.  Our ancient Greek and Roman friends developed this process and fondly referred to it as the Method of Loci.   Loci is Latin for places and in this blog, we’re going to chat about building palaces.  Oh, how royal!

Why Would We Bother Building a Memory Palace?

Let’s address the obvious first.  Why build a Memory palace?  First of all, our brains love pictures. preferring them over numbers, language and lists. But, isn’t that what our smartphones and digital storage does for us?  Yes, but no. 

Reason #1:  Build a Memory Palace to Exercise Your Brain

We have tools that help us remember passwords and apps that let us type or dictate grocery lists.  So why would we bother with the Memory Palace neuro-hack?  Because we want to exercise our brain.  It needs to stay fit just like other parts of our bodies.  Wouldn’t it be wonderful  if you could recall, remember and recollect large amounts of information without your personal technical assistant, that thing you call your smart phone?

Reason #2:  Build a Memory Palace so You Won’t be a Victim of “Use It or Lose It”

Building a Memory Palace serves another purpose too.  In my last blog,How to React to Your Inevitable Professional Decline.  Hint: Use Your Crystallized Intelligence, I discussed how we will all encounter the inevitable professional decline. When we begin to lose our fluid memory, we can depend on your crystallized intelligence.  Our crystallized intelligence develops over time, accumulating from knowledge, facts and skills acquired throughout life.  But, if we aren’t building Memory Palaces then where is all that knowledge going?  I’m predicting,right out of the front door of our wanna’ be palace.


So, now that we know the why behind Memory Palace building, let’s jump into the how.

How to Map a Powerful Memory Palace:

I found a great blog on WikiHow, written by a WikiHow staff member who wasn’t named.  The blog is mainly related to building good study and recall habits, but you can put anything in your palace. That’s the beauty of it.  Your palace is yours!  You determine the number of rooms, what the rooms are, and what’s in each room.  Building Memory Palaces is a design process on steroids!

Step 1:  Palace Design

Select a place that is familiar to you.  It can be your current home or former home.  It could be a favorite vacation spot or park.  Wherever it is, close your eyes and make certain you can visualize the place in detail. 

The goal is to select a space that is large enough to store your mental imagery.  In other words, don’t pick a closet if you want to store all the knowledge you have about marketing, IT security, sales or running a non-profit.  You get the idea, the more knowledge you have, the more you will want to link it together and you’ll need a larger space to do that.

I think I’ll start with my current home and add spaces outside if I fill up my palace with too much of my crystallized knowledge.  Your turn.  Now pick your palace blueprint so we can move to Step 2. 

Step 2:  Tour Your Palace and Map the Route 

Since your palace is a familiar spot, it’s important not to take the space for granted.  You know what I mean.  You live in a space or visit it frequently.  Many times we begin  to no longer notice certain things in our surroundings.  You forgot the nik-nak in that corner.  But when you map your route through your palace, you’ll hone your focus and notice the nik-nak.  Why is that important?  Because you might hide a memory, skill or other expertise tid-bit behind it.

Let’s Practice Mapping a Memory Palace !

Close your eyes and imagine your palace. Notice the door as you enter.

  • What color is it?  
  • Is the door fancy or plain?  
  • In need of repair or inviting?  

Now walk inside.  

  • What do you see directly in front of you?  
  • What room are you entering?
  • What’s in each corner?
  • Do you hear common sounds each time you get to this place?

Move to the next room.

  • Did you have to walk through a hallway?
  • Is the space open and visible to the entryway?
  • Why did you go in that direction first?

Continue to map each room.

  • What objects stand out?
  • Favorite pictures?
  • Comfy blankets?
  • Special gifts?

Step 3:  Identify the specific rooms throughout your palace.  Select special places in each room. 

You’ll want to pick these special places because you’ll store the things you want to remember there.  You’ll tuck away special skills or know how, your expertise in a certain field and the new things you are learning. 

If your palace is a route,  such as a country drive, notice the landmarks along the way.  Use the same concept to build your Memory Palace route.  If you drive by a field of wildflowers, think about what you’ll keep there. 

Sharing Time! – 2 Examples of Memory Palaces

My Personal Memory Palace Example:  A Priority “to do” List:

I’ll share one of my Memory Palaces.  It’s a work in progress, so pardon the construction.  Since I own my own business, you can find me working on marketing my courses and coaching.  Right now, that’s a key focus, so I decided to build a Memory Palace to help me remember what’s most important and when I need to prioritize certain tasks. I chose the kitchen for this “to do” list because:

  1. I eat everyday so when I go there I’ll be reminded of my palace priorities.
  2. I like to cook, making the kitchen one of my favorite rooms.
  3. I know that in order for me to be successful, I need my plan (aka: my meal) to be just right and served at an impeccable time (when my customers are hungry).

Since I’m working on a course launch, I need to think about:

  1. Positioning – Do I collaborate with other colleagues?  Do I ask affiliates to help me reach clients?  Do I need to further hone my target market?  Is my message clear?  Will I create a video podcast for my show chatting it up about my course?
  1. Marketing – This is a HUGE pot.  I decided to make my marketing pot a soup.  Many things go into successful marketing, e.g., content, email, social media, ads, etc.
  1. Sales – Obviously I want to make sales, but what are my sale’s goals?  How will I measure my success?  
  2. Administration – I like to stay on top of things.  What’s my follow up strategy?  How about my budget?  How will I track my successes, my failures and my tweaks?  How will I organize my time and energy?

Picture Credit: Unsplash – andre-francois-mckenzie

This is an example of how you might use a Memory Palace and hack into a priority “to do” list. But what if you want to build your palace a different way? What if you could care less about a business, let alone marketing? 
 I say, go for it!  In the next section I’ll share a few more examples.  They relate to mixing and merging your expertise!

Mapping a Memory Palace: An Expert Portfolio Example

 Merging skills, education and talents and passion with your What’s Next? Picture Credit:  Unsplash – giorgio.trovato

Let’s imagine that you go into your kitchen, a room in your Memory Palace and this time you focus on:

  • Mixing bowls (sizes & colors) and
  • Coffee Makers

Imagine what you’ll put into each bowl.  

Ask yourself what should I put in the largest bowl?  

Large Mixing Bowl – 

Perhaps you have expertise in a certain field but want to learn more about specific aspects of it. Use the large bowl so you have room to add more knowledge.

Medium Mixing Bowl –

Maybe you have knowledge or a skill that serves you well.  Maybe you’ll store that particular ingredient in your medium sized bowl.  It can sit between your larger and smaller bowl so you can add some of it to either bowl when needed.  Your medium bowl is like a middle man, the supply and demand bowl that you will pull from.  

Small Mixing Bowl – 

The small mixing bowl may represent things you know about, but you don’t consider yourself to be an expert in.  You want to learn more so you can add it to your a la carte offerings.  You may consider adding 1 or 2 ingredients at a time, mastering them individually as you go along. 

This scenario is an example of how you might use the mixing bowl imagery when you build your Memory Palace. Use the ingredients that are most useful to you.  You can also color code the bowls indicating which bowl you need to work out of at any given time.

Coffee Maker –  Saved for Brewing New Ideas

If you are like me you love coffee.  The smell alone is inviting, making it an appealing item to put in my Memory Palace.  I use the coffee maker as the place to associate my new ideas; the ideas that brew in my creative state of mind.  

Most of us have a fresh cup of coffee each day.  If not maybe it’s tea.  Regardless, our sense of smell and our sense of taste can activate our building process.  Our brains will know it’s time to brew new ideas.  We can sit quietly and sip the wonders of our imagination, creativity and crystallized intelligence. How will you associate your coffee maker into your Memory Palace?

What’s brewing.  The coffee pot imagery used for brewing new ideas
 Picture credit:  Pixabay – funworks

4.  Memory Palace Practice – Drawing Your Palace Makes it Come to Life

It’s important to translate your thoughts and visualizations to paper.  You don’t have to be a great artist to draw your Memory Palace. A sketch will do!

The most important part of drawing your Memory Palace is making sure that the drawing matches your mental imagery. How can you do this?

Do a quality check – 

  • Give your image to an accountability partner (family member or friend) 
  • Describe what you drew and make sure the image reflects what you are saying
  • If not, take into consideration what wasn’t clear during the quality check
  • Tweak the picture if you might forget something knowing the purpose is to capture what’s important!

Polish off your palace by incorporating all your senses.  You will not actually smell your drawing but imagine that all of your senses fully activated:

  • Sights – What do you see in your Memory Palace?
  • Sounds – what do you hear?
  • Smells – Is there some specific smell that you can associate to an important memory?
  • Tactile Stimulation – How does it feel in your Memory Palace.  Is the floor hard or carpeted.  Do your kitchen pots have a gritty or smooth texture?
  • Taste – What would you taste in your Memory Palace?  Taste could be linked to a reward.  I would choose dark chocolate and see this as my reward for nailing my presentation.  What taste would you imagine? The more you incorporate your senses the more you cement the things you want to put in your palace.  And like the ancient Greeks and Romans, no matter how ancient we feel we have much to offer.  

Building Memory Palaces aren’t new, the Method of Loci (aka: Memory Palaces) were created by the ancients who lived long before us. The technique is old, but the results are always new. Build your Memory Palace and rediscover yourself using imagery and association.  Don’t overlook all that you have to offer.  It took you years to acquire all that you know, now put it in a safe place.  Your royal debut is waiting for you!

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