# How to build a memory palace when you have never tried one before

- URL: https://www.agentskillpacks.com/guides/how-to-build-a-memory-palace
- Updated: 2026-10-21
- Book: The Genius Lab by Ada Fenwick (https://www.agentskillpacks.com/books/the-genius-lab)

## Short answer

A memory palace is a place you know well, like your home, used as a set of shelves for things you want to remember. Pick 10 stops in a fixed order, turn each item into a big, strange image, and leave one image at each stop. To recall, walk the route in your mind. Two reviews, from 2021 and 2025, found it helps people remember lists better than simple repetition. In a 2017 study, ordinary adults who practiced 30 minutes a day for 40 days went from about 26 to 62 words out of 72.

## The list was in your head an hour ago

You walked into the shop with five things to buy. You walked out with two of them and a bag of crisps.

Or it was worse. You stood up to give a short talk, and the third point was just gone. You had read it ten times that morning.

So you look up memory tricks. Everyone says "memory palace." Nobody says how to build one on a Tuesday night with no training.

That is what we wrote this page for.

## Why trying harder to remember does not help

Most of us try to remember by repeating. Say it again. Read it again. It works a little, then it slips.

The trouble is that a list of words has nothing to hold on to. Bread, milk, eggs. They float.

Places are different. You never have to try to remember where your kitchen is, or which way the front door swings. Your memory for places is already strong. The memory palace borrows that strength. Psychologists call it the method of loci. Loci is Latin for "places."

And it has evidence. A 2021 review pooled 13 randomized trials and found it helped. A larger [2025 review of 83 experiments](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12514325/) found it beat simple repetition for young adults. That second review also gave a warning. Many studies were small, and about 89 percent were judged at high risk of bias. So the doubt is about how big the boost is, not whether it exists. The book gives it a SOLID badge for lists.

## Your first palace in 20 minutes

Stand at your own front door in your mind. Use the real one. Notice its color and the handle.

Now picture a loaf of bread the size of a sofa leaning on it. Push past into the hall, where someone has poured a gallon of milk across the rug. In the kitchen, a dozen eggs are juggling themselves over the sink.

You just stored three items. Here is the full drill from the book.

1. Walk through your home in your mind, starting at the front door. Pick 10 stops in order and write them down. Front door, hall rug, coat closet, kitchen sink, fridge, and so on.
2. Walk the route twice in your head, out loud if you can. The stops should feel fixed before you put anything on them.
3. Take a real list of 10 things. A shopping list, or the points of a short talk.
4. For each item, make an image that is big, strange or a little gross. Leave it at the next stop. Spend about 20 seconds on each.
5. Close your notebook. Walk the route and write down every item you find.
6. Look at the blanks. A blank usually means the image was too polite, or two stops were too close. Make it wilder, spread the stops out, and try again.
7. Tomorrow, before you look at the list, walk the route once more.

Keep the same route every time. You are building shelves you will use again and again.

## Using it for the points of a talk

Most beginner guides stop at a shopping list. The harder case is a talk or the steps of a process at work, where the items do not come with pictures.

The book gives three ways to make a stand-in:

- **A sound-alike.** "Quarterly budget" becomes a giant quarter rolling down your hall, chased by a budgie.
- **A symbol.** "Improve customer service" becomes a waiter in a tuxedo bowing at your coat closet.
- **Someone you know.** Your most organized friend stands at the fridge for "planning." Your funniest cousin sits in the bathtub for "opening joke."

Then add movement. Make the quarter roll, the waiter bow, the cousin splash. A still image fades faster than a moving one. On the day, walk the route in your head just before you start, the same way you did the morning after you built it.

## Where to build your next palace

Your home is the best first palace because you know it cold. Once one palace works, build more. For the book's 40-day version, it suggests two or three palaces with at least 20 stops each, in places like these:

- the home you grew up in
- your route to work
- your gym or another place you go every week

Why more than one? If you use the same palace for every new list, yesterday's images get in the way of today's. Rotate between palaces so each one has time to clear.

## What six weeks of practice did for beginners

In 2017, a team led by Martin Dresler studied memory athletes, people who train for memory contests. Then they asked a bigger question. Could ordinary people learn the skill?

They took 51 people with no memory training. One group practiced the memory palace for 30 minutes a day for 40 days. [The results](https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/03/170308131236.htm) were striking. That group went from about 26 words out of 72 to about 62. Four months later, with no more practice, they still recalled over 22 more words than when they started.

It is one study with small groups, so the book gives the long version a PROMISING badge. Still, nobody in that group started with any special gift.

One limit is worth keeping in mind. A memory palace helps you hold lists and steps in order. It will not help you understand an idea you do not understand yet. For that, use the [explain-it test](/guides/feynman-technique-explain-it-simply).

## The full chapter, and the 40-day version

This is the problem [The Genius Lab](/books/the-genius-lab) was written for: a real memory method, with the evidence laid out plainly.

**Building Rooms in Your Head** has three drills. Your First Memory Palace is the one above. The 40-Day Palace copies the training plan from the 2017 study, with weekly tests so your notebook becomes your own lab report. The Impossible Room is a playful variation where you build a room that cannot exist. The book marks that one STORY ONLY and says plainly that no study backs it. The chapter also shows how to turn abstract ideas, like "quarterly budget," into images you can place.

**Feynman: Play Is a Research Method** covers the other half of learning: checking whether you understand, not just whether you remember.

**The 30-Day Lab** fits the memory drills into a month of short daily practice, with a review every seventh day.

## Where this is in the book

- Building Rooms in Your Head
- Feynman: Play Is a Research Method
- The 30-Day Lab

Kindle: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HM1VL1BD
Paperback: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HM216G8N

Links go to Amazon. ToolGenX publishes this book under a pen name and earns from every sale.

## Is the book for you?

- Yes, if You forget lists, names or the points of a talk
- Yes, if You have heard of the memory palace and never knew where to start
- Yes, if You want to know if it works before you spend six weeks on it
- Skip it if You want to understand a hard idea, which a memory palace will not do for you
- Skip it if You want a trick that works without any practice

## FAQ

### How does a memory palace work?

It borrows your strong memory for places. You never have to try to remember where your kitchen is. By leaving a vivid image of each item at a fixed stop on a route you know, you hang new things on that strength. To recall, you walk the route in your mind and look at each stop.

### How many rooms should a memory palace have?

Start with 10 stops in one place you know well, such as your home from the front door. For longer practice, the book suggests two or three palaces of at least 20 stops each, so you can switch between them and avoid piling new images on old ones.

### Does the method of loci really work?

For lists, yes. A 2021 review of 13 randomized trials found it helped, and a 2025 review of 83 experiments found it beat simple repetition in young adults. The second review also warned that many studies were small and at high risk of bias, so the exact size of the boost is uncertain.

### How long does it take to get good at a memory palace?

You can store your first 10 items in about 20 minutes. In a 2017 study, people with no memory training practiced 30 minutes a day for 40 days and more than doubled their recall of word lists. Four months later, without practice, they still recalled over 22 more words than at the start.

### How do you remember abstract things with a memory palace?

Find a concrete stand-in. A sound-alike works: for quarterly budget, picture a giant quarter rolling down your hall, chased by a budgie. A symbol works too. Then add movement, because a still image fades faster than a moving one.

### Are memory champions born with special brains?

The 2017 study in the journal Neuron suggests practice does much of the work. Ordinary adults with no memory training practiced the memory palace 30 minutes a day for 40 days and more than doubled their recall of word lists. It was one study with small groups, so treat it as a strong hint, not proof.