WHAT’S A MEMORY PALACE AND HOW DOES IT WORK?
1st let me say that these are great. I have known about memory palaces for a very long time but I had a problem implementing them because there were complex instructions involved that kept slowing me down with all the detailed steps of drawing detailed pictures of places with pen and paper.
One recommendation is that you go out and find at least 20, 30 or.even 100 different buildings and draw detailed maps of these places and that’s how you have to build your memory palaces in order to start. I hated that idea. I don’t go out that much. I’m not that kind of a person. The prospect of doing that was completely daunting and I had no desire whatever to spend a lot of time going into strange places, maybe taking pictures or drawing images… it would just look too weird, plus that’s a lot of work, gas, and driving… and constantly dealing with sales-people and others explaining that I’m “just looking” while appearing to “case the joint” while photographing, drawing, or just plain moving from one place to the next, covering every square foot of the place.
Then in one of the Dr. Metivier’s rare moments he mentioned that a memory palace doesn’t have to have a lot of places, that 10 will do. That’s when I realized that I didn’t need to keep a great detailed diagram of everything that I’m doing with 10 stations or 10 places inside of a memory palace. I can easily use a single Room or anything else big in my memory of the place, and I don’t need to have all of these details… all of these photos, or drawings, or diagrams — at least not to start. The most important thing was that I start!
THE IMPORTANT THING IS THAT YOU START. DO THAT ONCE AND YOU’LL SEE HOW INCREDIBLY FAST AND EASYBIT IS TO REMEMBER QUICKLY AND ACCURATELY.
I’ll give you a quick example. Yesterday I decided that I was going to memorize the names of the drinks of the 50 drinks BarSmarts teaches in its course. I have some of these drinks memorized completely for all of the details: when they were created, by whom, where, and all of their ingredients and the method of operation in making them. Others not so much. My goal wasn’t to memorize all 50 drinks completely A to Z for all of their details. My goal was simply to memorize the names of all of the drinks. Once the names of the drinks are memorized, I can then memorize, memorize, or reinforce the memorization of all of the recipes, and run through them in my head. Since I know the names of the drinks I don’t need to refer to any papers. I can simply think of the next drink in the list in my head and go over each recipe mentally, one by one, using some of the other memory techniques I use.
It’s THAT simple! And walking through my home applying the memory palace technique I planned to test to see if I could memorize 10 drink names. I started with two and it was easy. So I decided to do 25. Literally within 25 minutes I had all 25 memorized backwards, forwards, and anywhere in between — and I was laughing at how easy it was. So I wen to bed, woke up, went over them a time or two and knew them all, so I decided to add 25 more. Now I have 25 contemporary and 25 classic drink cocktails memorized — and all without drawing anything up front. I may do a diagram later on some time if I feel the need, but simply telling myself that a memory palace only has to have 10 stations takes all the pressure off. Thanks Dr. Metivier.
Site Author, David J. Curtis: David Curtis, a seasoned professional with decades of bartending and bar management experience began his career in Midtown Manhattan, NY, tending and managing bars before diving into Manhattan’s bustling nightlife club scene. Over the years, he has mastered high-volume, high-pressure bartending as the lead bartender in iconic Midtown clubs and tended bar briefly in the Wall Street area, generating over $1,350,000.00 annually in personal drink sales. He has since extended his expertise to establishments in Georgia and now Tampa in Exclusive Platinum Service Awards Clubs, Florida. David’s roles as a Bartending Instructor at the American Bartending School in Tampa, while maintaining a second job bartending, and his years experience of managing bars, and working as a Brand Ambassador along with his extensive professional library of over 1,000 bartending books, highlight his dedication to continually refining his craft. He holds a diploma in Bar Management and is BarSmarts certified by Pernod Ricard.