How's your memory?

Do you find it difficult to recall the name of the lad you shifted last night or have you a knack for remembering the dates of birth and addresses of every single person you went to primary school with no bother? Sometimes, it feels like there's no in between when it comes to memory - you've either got a great one or a crap one (and if you've got a crap one you'll know it because people will remind you constantly). As it turns out though, there is a pretty easy way to improve your memory. By creating a memory palace. Turns out Sherlock wasn't complete bullsh*t after all. If you're not at all familiar with the concept of the memory palace (or have never seen an episode of Benedict Cumberbatch's fifth most impressive acting achievement), let us break it down for you. A memory palace is a place where you store everything you need to remember. The palace is, obviously, in your imagination, but it tends to resemble a place you know quite well - be it a living room, your bedroom, place of work, or whatever. The idea is that you picture everything in your memory palace - whether they're items, events, or occurrences - and the memories become more vivid so you won't forget them. For example, imagine you have a list of birthdays coming up, but for some reason, you just know you'll forget them. You could picture your fella celebrating his birthday in the palace surrounded by Shamrocks because he was born on March 17, or you could see your mam eating birthday cake wearing a dunce's hat because her birthday is on April Fool's Day, and so on. Birthdays probably aren't the easiest things to remember (or to picture), but something like a shopping list would work a lot better. Simply just picture a load of eggs rolling around the floor of your palace or a bucket of chicken swinging from the curtain, or whatever it is that you need to remember to buy. As long as it's vivid, it should stay in there. The memory palace isn't exactly a new concept either. A study conducted in 2017 showed that anyone who created their own palace increased their ability to remember things and even improved their brain function. Not a bad result for a bit of thinking.