We’re living at a time when the act of memorizing isn’t a requirement to get through day-to-day life. Worried about forgetting someone’s birthday? Just set an automatic reminder. Don’t know the route you’re supposed to take to that restaurant you’ve only driven to once? Enter the destination on your GPS of choice. Forget about remembering your emergency contact’s phone numbers. In a 2023 survey of 423 respondents over the age of 16, 21% admitted to typing “What’s my own phone number” into Google.

Katie Kermode isn’t one of those people. The British front-end developer has won several memory competitions and championships, both in the U.K. and internationally. Today, she’s ranked among the top 100 memory athletes in the world.

Kermode continues to use the techniques she honed in memory competitions in her day-to-day life, such as her weekly calendars. Below, she shares some of those tips and practices on how to train your brain to memorize things—memory athlete or not.

1. Create a memory palace

When doing any memory-training exercise, Kermode creates a “memory palace.” She recommends picking a building you know well, like your house or your workplace. Alternatively, you could pick a specific object. “This is the place where you’re going to put your memories,” she says.