Memory issues? Here is a brain hack

I do not have perfect memory, in fact I have some difficulties with long term memory. Not that the memories are gone, just it takes me some time to kick start them. If you would like to improve your both short term and long term memory, here is a great method that I have been using.

Over 3 years ago I saw an episode of Sherlock Holmes (the Cumberbatch one) where he uses his “mind palace” to remember things. The way they portrayed it in the episode was very exaggerated with Holmes having a superhuman brain. But nevertheless this sparked enough interest for me to do some research.

It turns out that it is an ancient Greek technique with other names such as “the art of memory” and “memory theater”, but best known as a mind Palace.

How it works is that in your mind you imagine a place that you know well. It can be anywhere you like. Most people choose their home. For me I use my home in Denmark. Since you are so familiar with it you can with ease in your mind walk around and know what is in all the rooms.

What you then do is whatever you want to remember, you place it in a room. It can help to embellish on the thing you would like to remember, for example if you are memorizing a shopping list for later in the week and want to remember to buy milk, you can instead of the milk carton imagine and place a big pool of milk with a singing cow swimming in it. Silly I know, but it will be easier to remember.

When you then need to remember something you just walk thru your mind palace looking in the rooms to remember what it is. You can make this a complex or simple as you want. You can start with just having 5-10 things stored, but you quickly become better and can store a lot more than you think!

Would love to hear what you think and what memory techniques you use! This has worked fine for me, but I am always open to new brain hacks!