If you watched the hit BBC 1 show Sherlock last week (how can you not be hooked?!), you will have seen him trying to recall the significance of certain words by retracing paths through years of stored thoughts, images, sounds and places.
Sherlock recalled memories from his ‘mind palace’ and found the acronym he was looking for tucked away safely in one of the bedrooms of said palace – a memory he’d stored from the past.
In a busy, demanding and creative profession it can be really important that those brainwaves of ideas don’t slip away – especially as they often arrive at 3am or whilst you’re driving, showering or otherwise engaged.
So when Sherlock so dramatically visualised his ‘mind palace’ with lots of crazy waving and gestures, I decided to get myself a palace too. I have no delusions of grandeur so have settled on a mind house for now – apparently it is far easier to find things again if you know the layout of the space already. Figures.
So on Monday night, well past 5.30pm I remembered that I needed to rearrange a cancelled lunch with a key contact. So, I sat him on the toilet reading The Guardian. Come the morning, I went back to my mind house and found him, still sitting there, just where I left him and remembered to email him.
On Tuesday I put a friends mother up on the shelf in the kitchen to remind me about an idea I’d had for a press release about holidays and holiday habits -my friends mother goes back to the same resort every year. And lo and behold, I remembered the idea in its entirety when I thought back to where I had put her.
On Wednesday I put the host of a networking meeting I was attending the following morning in the kitchen cupboard nestled in with the washing powder and fabric softener – well he is only small. I wanted to remind myself of the theme for my ‘one minute’ – the bit where you have to stand up and make a good impression about yourself and your business. And again it worked.
I Googled this technique and found this page about memory recall and mind palaces - it’s well worth a read.
The principle is based on the Method of Loci and works on the basis that we are better at remembering locations that anything else. So by putting thoughts into specific locations, with symbols, icons and images to help us remember chains of information, we make them easier to recall.
“Why don’t you just write it down?!!!” True, but if you are in a meeting with a different client and listening to what they say, you can’t make a quick note on your iPhone. If you are driving or anything else, sometimes having your mind as a second notepad is pretty useful.
Only trouble is, the more good ideas you have, the more people you need…. anyone want a job?!
