Question from a reader:
I was curious how many memory palaces (or journeys) memory athletes have. How many memory palaces do you have? Thanks
My Response
I write down all my memory palaces in spreadsheets each year. Every year I make a new spreadsheet to track my scores that year and to prepare for that year’s competitions.
So I was able to go back and see how many memory palaces I’ve built over the years.
I started competing at the end of 2014. By spring of 2015, I had 21 memory palaces that I used for training and competition.
In 2018, I had 50 memory places for training/competitions.
By early 2019, I had 68 palaces.
THEN, by the end of 2019, I had 139 total memory palaces for training and competitions.
The reason I needed more and more each year (and especially for the end of 2019) was because my memory abilities and scores were getting better and better…so I needed more storage space for competition events.
I calculated that I needed 130+ memory palaces for the 2019 World Memory Championship…that’s why I built so many last year.
Another important note is that almost all (90%) of my memory palaces for competition have exactly 20 loci each. I started doing it that way early on and it worked well for me (consistency). The other 10% have 17 loci or 23 loci for different disciplines.
I also have 3 or 4 LARGE memory palaces that consist of 120 to 300+ loci each. These were used for the 2018 USA Memory Championship event “Long Term Memory”.
You can read about that event here: https://memoryjohn.com/2018-usa-memory-championship-recap/
So, in total I have between 3,000 to 3,500 loci (among 140+ memory palaces). That’s a lot!
To answer your first question about how many memory palaces other memory athletes have…I honestly don’t know. It depends on their level of ability. But I do know that most memory athletes do not have as many memory palaces or loci as I do.
Do you want FREE mental performance & memory enhancement tips (from a USA Memory Champion…me!) sent to your email?
Then, enter your first name and email below!
Leave a Reply