Ton Zijlstra just asked:
Do use memory palaces? What do you remember with them for the long term? Why that? Would a note to link to be enough too?
I distinctly remember the first thing I stuck in a memory palace while reading Dominic O’Brien’s How to Develop a Perfect Memory, and now I will never forget that I wore the “Clix” scent of Axe deodorant in 2012. (I moved on from Axe in probably 2013 or so.) I used to use a memory palace as a quick way to memorize lists for relatively-short-term recall — for example, in that instance, a grocery list.
After I read David Allen’s Getting Things Done, however, I moved to a model of trying to never memorize anything that I didn’t need in long-term brain storage. Every todo list — like a grocery list — now gets written down. (If I do need to turn to long-term recall, I almost always reach for Anki.)
I do, however, still use a memory palace as a mnemonic device on most days. It’s a pretty short one — just the floors in my office building — but there’s only one place where I need to use it — the only place where I don’t have access to my todo list:
Shower thoughts.
I do some of my best thinking in the shower; the freedom from other distractions is probably a big part of it. Inevitably, I end up with a list of multiple, disconnected thoughts that I want to take action on: new ways to approach work I want to do, ideas for fun new projects, or things to look into. All of these end up feeling really important, so I cram them into my short-term memory and inevitably sprint out of the shower to go write them down somewhere more permanent.
