TL;DR:
Pick a route you know well, with ten or so distinct stops, and place one vivid image at each stop.
To recall the list, walk the route in your head and look at what is at each stop.
Walk it backward too, so you can start from any point and not just the beginning.
You need the first ten elements of the periodic table in order, and your brain does not hold lists of unrelated words well. Hydrogen, helium, lithium, beryllium, boron: after a few minutes they blur. What your brain does hold very well is places. You know exactly how to walk from your front door to your bed.
The method of loci (also called a memory palace) uses that strength. You hang each item on a place along a familiar route, then recall the list by walking the route.
Why it works
Two things help at once. The route gives the list an order that is already stored, so you never have to remember what comes next, only what is at the next stop. And a vivid, odd image is easier to remember than a plain word, because you attach more detail to it: shape, colour, action.
The method has been used since ancient times and is taught as a memory technique today. It is best for lists whose order matters, such as steps in a process, the planets, a speech outline or a sequence of events. It does not teach you why those things are in that order.
What you need
A route you know so well you could walk it blind, such as your home, your walk to school or your classroom.
Ten distinct stops along it, always visited in the same order.
The list, with each item turned into something you can picture.
The steps
Fix the route: Name your stops in order. Choose things that look different from each other: a door, a mirror, a staircase, a sink, not three identical windows.
Turn each item into an image: Use what the word sounds like or what it is used for. Make the image large, odd, moving and funny.
Place each image at its stop: Do not just think of both together. Picture the image doing something to the place: blocking it, breaking it, sitting on it.
Walk it forward, then backward: Go through the whole route once slowly, then in reverse. Test yourself without looking.
Worked example: the first ten elements
The elements are hydrogen, helium, lithium, beryllium, boron, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, fluorine and neon, with atomic numbers 1 to 10. Here is a route through a house, with one image at each stop.
Stop | Place | Element | Image |
|---|---|---|---|
1 | Front door | Hydrogen | A garden hose coiled around the door handle, spraying water, because hydrogen is part of water |
2 | Doormat | Helium | A huge party balloon floating up, tugging the mat with it |
3 | Coat hooks | Lithium | A phone battery hanging from a hook, glowing, since lithium is in many rechargeable batteries |
4 | Hallway mirror | Beryllium | A bowl of berries stuck to the glass |
5 | Shoe rack | Boron | A wild boar trying on all the shoes |
6 | Stairs | Carbon | Charcoal lumps tumbling down every step |
7 | Bedroom door | Nitrogen | A knight in armour blocking the door (night, knight) |
8 | Bed | Oxygen | An ox asleep under the covers |
9 | Bathroom sink | Fluorine | Toothpaste flooding out of the tap, since fluoride is in toothpaste |
10 | Window | Neon | A bright neon sign glowing in the window |
Now walk it. Open the door and see the hose: hydrogen, 1. Step on the mat and the balloon lifts: helium, 2. Keep going to the window and its neon sign: neon, 10. Then walk it backward from the window: neon, fluorine (sink), oxygen (bed), nitrogen (bedroom door), carbon (stairs), boron (shoe rack), beryllium (mirror), lithium (hooks), helium (mat), hydrogen (door). If you can say that sequence, you really have the list, not just a story.
Check yourself by counting: ten stops, ten elements, and the last stop is number 10, which is neon. A route with the wrong number of stops usually shows up here.
Note: The method gets you the names in order. It does not tell you anything about what the elements do. Use the list to hang facts on later, such as which are gases at room temperature.
Mistakes to avoid
Using a route you only half remember. If you hesitate at a stop, pick another route.
Dull images. A tidy, quiet picture is forgotten; a loud, silly one sticks.
Putting two images in one place so they blur together.
Reciting the story once and never testing from memory.
Reusing the same route for a new list the next day without clearing it. Use a new route or wait.
Your plan for this week
Today: choose a route with ten stops and write them down.
Build images for ten items you need, perhaps these ten elements or the order of a process in your course.
Walk it forward and backward the same evening.
Walk it again tomorrow morning before you look at anything.
After a few days, add the next ten elements on a second route.
Frequently asked questions
Does this work for definitions or concepts?
Not directly. It helps with order and names. For ideas, use examples and explaining in your own words, then use the route only to hold the sequence of ideas.
How many stops can I use?
Start with ten. Once that is comfortable, add stops or use a second route. Longer routes work if each stop is distinct.
Get started
