how do I work on sense of direction?

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I'll be getting my license soon how do I improve my sense of direction?

Use gps.

Welcome to Wrong Planet.

Learn the art of map reading. Once you learn, it is very difficult to get lost.

If you live in a large city, then memorize the main freeway systems.
In my late teens, I moved to Los Angeles, California. The metropolitan area of Los Angeles stretches from the Pacific Ocean at Santa Monica on the west side to San Bernardino on the east side, a distance of approximately 80 miles. It stretches from the San Fernando Valley on the north side to Mission Viejo on the south side, a distance of around 80 miles. It is a gigantic maze of continuous houses tied together by hundreds of thousands of streets. Yet I found it easy to navigate using the following rules. I memorized the freeway system. This included not only the name of the freeway (such as the Santa Monica freeway) but also its designator (Interstate 10 or I-10). Committing the freeway system to memory allows me to find my way home from anywhere in metropolitan area of Los Angeles without a map. If I ever got lost, I would just travel in a straight line and after a few minutes I would run into one of many freeways and then I could easily figure my way home.

lol this.

I've accepted that I have a HORRENDOUS sense of direction & that technology can compensate for it. I use google maps to guide me literally everywhere I drive - even if I've been there many times, as even if I know how to get there I prefer to take the quickest route that uses the least fuel.

That said, it is sort of a "use it or lose it," thing I think, too. Once in a blue moon I'll drive w/o google maps and just pay closer attention to things with the thought that maybe it'll slightly improve my sense of direction.

..but in general: GPS.

I have dyslexia, ADD, & a visual processing disorder so I'm horrible with directions. I had to memorize maps of different countries in World Geography & I failed every single test because my brain just could not process it & remember. I haven't found anything that really helps with my sense of direction so I try & work around it. I only go by myself to places & routes I've been to a bunch of times, & I go new places with my girlfriend.

Either spend twenty dollars for a GPS, or spend one dollar for one of those plastic compasses that stick on your dash board.

A compass will provide 90 percent of what you need to know from a GPS (just what direction you're going).

I have had both things at the same time. Which is fine. Except the GPS got stolen.

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But it also helps to learn the basics of how your city geography is set up. Like if its a square grid type city (like most towns in the Midwest, west, and south Florida), or if its set up like a bicycle wheel with the main roads radiating outward like spokes(like DC), or just a random mess of spaghetti (Eastern US cities, European cities).

Without anything just learn to care about position of sun at current time.
Otherwise try a compass and a map or just use a navi and GPS.
My VW always shows the current direction in display but has a navi too. It's both a good thing.
There exist offline navigation software and maps beside of Google maps for the cellphone too.

Find out what is north in your home and any other buildings you frequent, and get used to remembering your orientation as you turn corners while walking around.

I work on GPS software. Don't do this, GPS doesn't actually tell you direction, it only vectors your direction of travel. Practice sighting where you're walking to with an engineer's compass.

just being aware of the time of day helps.

Look for where the sun is. If its after noon, and the sun is on your right that means that you are facing south.

Most folk get their sense of direction from the sun. Get a compass (or a compass app for your phone) and spend as much time as possible outdoors; particularly early morning and late evening. Using the sun and compass a reference, try to maintain a constant awareness of your orientation relative to the sunrise or sunset and the cardinal directions; north, east, south, and west.
Get a map and familiarize yourself with your area. Many roads (and interstate highways) are aligned on a north-south or east-west axis. Many street signs will be marked with an 'N' if you're on the north side of town; an 'S' if you're on the south side.
Where I live, the main road through town; Highway 64, runs roughly east-west. Highway 69 goes north and south. Franklin is to the east; Murphy to the west, Hiawassee to the south. If I'm facing the Tusquittee Mountains, I'm going north. If I'm facing the Nantahala Mountains, I'm going east. If at sunrise the sun's in front of me, I'm going east. If at midday it's in front of me, I'm going south. If at sunset it's in front of me, I'm going west.
All you need is practice, and you'll soon get the hang of it.

I guy I know moved to Vancouver, and was told "It's pretty easy to get around here. If you can see the mountains, that's north, and if you can't that's rain."
I do use the sun for orientation sometimes, but one night the moon saved me from getting lost for hours. I had been doing my usual tally of left and right turns, and gotten one into the wrong column, so I noticed the moon was on the wrong side from where it should have been.
When I do get lost, the process of getting re-oriented is surprisingly difficult. I can try to rotate the whole map in my head, but some features don't seem to move the first time, and I've got a new muddle. If I've gotten lost on my way to a store, I'm likely to get lost the next time, too, since I still don't know the best way. Modern streets with some expressways can be frustrating when trying to get to even a visible store.
You may have always been in the state of confusion I get occasionally. If so, start really small, so you can see everything on your test map, and walk around to its features following either reference.

Learn to read maps and how they relate to the surrounding landscape. You can practise this anywhere but if you start with your familiar local area you should find it easier. By all means use GPS in addition to using maps but it is very helpful to be able to read maps for those occasions when your GPS dies or just fails to give an accurate location (both rare but they do happen). If you rely 100% on GPS then you will have no backup for when it doesn't work. People also get into all sorts of bother by blindly following what their GPS is telling them.

I used to wonder, mentally, should I rotate the map or myself on the map.. both seem difficult. And as the map gets bigger it gets more difficult. Or if part of a map connects to another part of a map it gets difficult.

I asked a therapist psychologist about it, and she said she has individual mental pictures of each turn of a route. Each individual picture might have some landmarks making it recognizable. She actually IIRC possibly didn't even use road names much. That method is much easier. One can even draw each one. like lines for the road and whatever landmark.

Still of course as others have mentioned, I tend to use a GPS.

I am not excellent at relative direction either so if I need to navigate somewhere, I sight something that's easy to see and in an appropriate direction, maybe a hilltop with no trees on it. As I travel I make sure that I'm approaching that hilltop. If that's not my destination, I'll look for something else to head towards, and repeat as often as needed.

If you're driving, than just plug your destination into your cars GPS system.
I am terribly directionally challenged, but Ive found that its much easier to memorize landmarks than streets and directions. Saying, "go left here, right here, straight here" or "north on ____ street, then turn west" doesnt help me at all. Instead, I memorized the route to three locations in my town and I asked people to give me directions using landmarks from those three places to where I need to go. I can no go pretty much anywhere within my little triangle.
But when in doubt, GPS is your best friend.