Taylor Swift's 3-Pen Brain Hack

Taylor Swift has built a global empire on the words she’s written. But here’s a secret you may not know: she swears by a quirky little trick with three imaginary pens. She calls them her “three writing voices”—the quill pen, the glitter gel pen, and the fountain pen. Each one gives her brain a context, a ritual that puts her brain in a certain emotional state.

As dorky as it sounds, Swift’s three-pen trick is pure genius. It taps into something called context-dependent memory—the idea that where and how you learn (or create) gets wired into your memory. Change the context, and recall gets harder. Keep the context, and recall gets easier.

What is Context-Dependent Memory?

Back in the 1970s, researchers had scuba divers memorize lists of words underwater or on land. When tested in the same environment where they learned the words, they remembered significantly more. The context—the sights, sounds, even the pressure of the water—served as cues for memory retrieval.

Taylor Swift may not be diving into the ocean with a notebook, but she’s doing the same thing: building contextual anchors. Her quill pen persona cues deep, old-world storytelling. The glitter gel pen sparks playful, confessional writing. The fountain pen calls up classic, polished lyrics.

Athletes do this too. Serena Williams bounces the tennis ball exactly five times before every serve. Michael Jordan famously wore his University of North Carolina shorts under his Chicago Bulls uniform—every single game. These rituals aren’t superstition; they’re neuroscience in action.

Why Rituals Work for Memory and Performance

Your brain loves context. In fact, it craves it. Every second, your nervous system is scanning the environment for cues that tell it what to expect and how to respond. These contextual cues—the sights, sounds, smells, and even the routines around you—act like shortcuts for your brain. They reduce cognitive load, conserve energy, and free up mental bandwidth for the task at hand.

When you repeat a behavior in the same context, your brain starts wiring those experiences together through a process called associative learning.

Neurons that fire together, wire together. Light a candle every time you sit down to write, and eventually that scent becomes a switch that flips your brain into creative mode. Play the same pump-up song before every big presentation, and your body learns to pair those beats with confidence and readiness.

Neuroscientists also point to the role of the hippocampus, the brain’s memory hub, which links events to context. It tags not just what happened, but where and how it happened. That’s why you might smell fresh-cut grass and suddenly remember summer afternoons from childhood—it’s context-dependent memory in action.

And here’s the kicker: context doesn’t just help you recall—it actually shapes performance in the moment. Rituals lower uncertainty, calm the amygdala (your brain’s alarm system), and signal the prefrontal cortex to step in with focus, planning, and problem-solving. It’s why athletes, musicians, and yes—even global superstars like Taylor Swift—use rituals to shift from “everyday brain” into “game mode brain.”

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How You Can Use Context-Dependent Memory

You don’t have to be Taylor Swift—or an NBA legend—to benefit from this science. The trick is consistency. The more faithfully you link a ritual to an activity, the more your brain will recognize the context as a cue to perform. Here’s how to make it work for you:

Create a writing ritual. Light a candle, open a specific playlist, or use a special notebook only for brainstorming. Your brain will link that ritual to creativity.

Anchor your focus. If you always review presentations in the same chair, under the same light, your recall will be sharper when it counts.

Use sensory cues. Scent is especially powerful—smell peppermint gum while studying, then chew it before an exam, and your memory improves.

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Taylor Swift's brain hack may seem dorky, but the neuroscience proves it’s genius. Context-dependent memory and ritualized behavior aren’t just for pop superstars; they’re tools we can all use to be more creative, more focused, and more confident.

So the next time you need your brain to shift gears—whether it’s writing, presenting, or solving a tough problem—don’t wing it. Anchor it with a cue it can’t miss. Call it your new superpower of context-dependent memory.

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