The body method: a memory palace you already have

By the Without Notes team. Last checked 27 October 2026.

The body method uses ten parts of your own body, from your feet to the top of your head, as the places of a memory palace. You put one item on each part with a short scene, then go up your body in your head to get the items back in order.

You already know the places and their order, so there is nothing to build first. In a 2022 study, ten parts of the body typed from feet to head worked as well as a classical memory palace for recalling a list in order. Try five of them below.

What is the body method?

It is a memory palace whose places are parts of your body. You go up from the ground: feet, knees, thighs, hips, stomach, chest, shoulders, neck, face, top of head. Each part holds one item, and because the parts always come in the same order, the items come back in the order you gave them.

People who use memory techniques have long used the body for small jobs, such as a short list. The 2022 study was a careful test of it.

What did the 2022 study find?

Kluger and colleagues asked 221 adults to learn lists in order, then repeated the study with 147 more. One group used a classical memory palace, one typed ten parts of their own body from feet to head and used those, and one used no method. Ten parts of the body worked as well as a classical memory palace for recalling a list in order, and both groups did better than the group with no method.

How vividly people could imagine things made no difference, so you don’t need to see pictures in your head. The gain was in the order: scored for the items alone, in any order, the groups came out the same.

Everyone in the study was an undergraduate, it took one sitting, and there was no test a day or a week later. So it shows that the body works as well as a palace on the day, and says nothing about next month. Keeping a list for a month depends on recalling it again over the following days.

How do you do the body method?

1. Name ten parts of your body from feet to head, in your own words (“left foot” and “belly” are fine), and say them once in order.
2. Put the first item on your feet by making it do something there: “The passport slaps the soles of your feet.” A few plain words are enough, as long as something happens.
3. Go up one part for each new item, one item per part.
4. Look away, then go up your body and say what is on each part before you look at anything.
5. Do it again the next day and a few days later. Recalling something before you look at it again is one of the best-supported ways to learn, and spreading those recalls over several days works better than packing them into one sitting.

Why use your body for a memory palace?

A palace in your home has to be chosen, put in order and learned before you can use it. Your body is ready, and its order is fixed: everyone’s feet come before their knees, so you never wonder which room came next. It is also with you in an exam room, on a stage or in a meeting.

The limit is ten places. For more, join a second set of ten, or move on to a route you walk every day (routes worked better than the inside of a house in another study), and then to rooms.

What can you put on your body?

The points of a talk or a pitch, one key word per point; exam topics in the order of the syllabus; the steps of a procedure; and short everyday lists such as errands, packing or shopping.

It helps less with names, where practising recall works better (so names go on a people list), with numbers, which need a learned system first, with long passages word for word, and with things you would look up anyway. It holds what you put on it and won’t improve your memory in general.

Does it work as well as the classical memory palace?

In the 2022 study it did, for recalling a list in order on the day. Be wary of bigger claims for either. A 2025 review of 85 experiments by Ondřej found that for young adults the measured advantage of the memory palace on its own is small and uncertain. A list lasts when you walk it again from memory over several days.

Try the body method with Without Notes

Without Notes starts on your body. In the free first lesson you learn ten words your way, then ten more on ten parts of your body that you type yourself, with the same time per word, and you see both scores. The next day it shows you which list stayed. After that you can put your own material on it: a talk, exam topics, a pitch or a list.

Questions

Which ten parts should I use?

Any ten you can go up in order without thinking. A common set is feet, knees, thighs, hips, stomach, chest, shoulders, neck, face and the top of your head.

Can I use someone else’s body?

Some people do. Your own is the one you know best, and it is the one the 2022 study used.