One of the things often overlooked with memory systems is that it's more difficult to remember stuff if you're passive about it. Most of those techniques like going through the rooms in your house would work faster if you actually did walk through the rooms in your house physically putting down things to become a visual anchor. Then it becomes a lot easier to recall because your whole body did it not just your mind.
No matter what technique you apply to remember something it helps to pay attention and notice what you are doing while your are putting it into your memory. Like if you're in the habit of not putting your keys in the same spot or are about to put them down where they don't belong, you need to say to yourself something like I just put my keys on the dining table.
If your studying/memorising stuff, notice the time, the smells, how hot or cold it is... even if you think something like boy it sure is a nice day out there today I could be flying a kite and here I am studying/memorising algebra (or whatever). Come to a test you have an emotional anchor to recall that helps to bring back the stuff you were studying. It adds leverage to your memory techniques and it something more to help remember the imaginary walk through the rooms.
Alex
