what is a commonplace book?
the art of collecting knowledge
Hello everyone! Today I want to talk a bit about commonplace books. I plan to explain a bit about what they are and share some places you can get more information and examples of commonplace books. And next week, I’ll share a bit about my own commonplacing system.
What is a commonplace book?
A commonplace book is a place where you store knowledge and can reflect upon that knowledge. It’s a method that has been around for a very long time, and it differs from a journal or a diary because it mostly consists of other people’s words, but a lot of modern examples of commonplace books are a mixture of both: text copied from others along with reflections and journal entires of your own.
You may think of commonplace books as something only for philosophers or students of literature, but the fact is that commonplace books are simply a place to store information and knowledge. It doesn’t have to be knowledge about deep thinkings on life. It can be knowledge about leadership, science, art, hobbies, or whatever it is you’re looking up on the internet or in books, films, podcasts, etc.
I think everyone keeps some level of a commonplace book. It may not be a formal system, but you likely have screenshots on your computer or phone of different tidbits of information or maybe you keep a journal of quotes. What differentiates a commonplace book from screen shots is the fact that commonplace books are meant to be something you can easily look back on for reflection or further study.
I personally love the concept of commonplace books. I don’t know about you, but I often get information overload. Between things I’m looking up at work, things I read for fun, social media, the news, etc., I’m consuming a ton of information. I think I have a decent memory, but there are times when I remember seeing something but I don’t remember exactly what it was. Then I find myself scrolling through screen shots or a website for a piece of information I don’t exactly remember but I know I saw a few weeks ago. It’s really inefficient, and this is where keeping a commonplace book helps.
Examples of commonplace books.
I’ll be honest. I’ve been trying to develop my commonplace book system for years, and I haven’t quite found the perfect system yet. I’m getting there though. So next week, I hope to share my current system, which is a mix of analog and digital. For now though, I’d love to share some places where I get inspiration for commonplacing.
Let’s start with Megan Rhiannon. I stumbled upon her YouTube videos last year, and I’ve really enjoyed watching her system evolve between the Hobonichi notebooks and her Filofax. She uses a colored sticker system to organize her commonplace book, which I think is really handy to organize topics, especially if you have multiple entries on a single page.
In a similar style to Megan Rhiannon, I also discovered Ellie’s Books and Dozy Ghoul on YouTube and Instagram respectively.
I’ve also been a fan of Journal De Sylvie on YouTube for a couple of years now. She has a lot of videos about journaling in general, but in terms of commonplacing, I really enjoy her videos about the various indexing methods or methods for keeping a table of contents. Using color coding or keeping an index or table of contents is important, I think, in a commonplace book. It makes searching for information easier. (Unless, you’re going to use an index card or ring bound system that allows you to organize cards/pages by topic. I believe Ryan Holiday uses an index card system.)
Lastly, if you want to see a lot of examples of notebooks kept by famous figures, I’d suggest checking out Noted by Jillian Hess. If you’re someone that loves journaling, you probably enjoy seeing other peoples journals as much as I do.
Truly, I don’t think there’s a right or wrong way to commonplace. It’s all about finding a system that works well for you to retain the knowledge from all the information you receive in this digital age.
Do you keep a commonplace book or a journal similar to a commonplace book? If so, I’d love to hear about your system via the comments or email, and I hope you’ll join me again next week when I share my current system.
🩷, Amy
P.S. In case you missed it, I’ll be reading Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley (Amazon affiliate link) this February and sharing my thoughts over on Instagram on March 2nd. Please read along with me. I look forward to discussing this award winning YA mystery/thriller with you all soon.
Hey! Just found you through Pinterest!
I’m still new-ish to (actual) commonplacing, though I think I’ve probably been doing some version of it for years.
Like you, I’m also consuming loads of information, and often forget where I saw (or saved!) something.
I love Journal de Sylvie… I agree that her YouTube videos are amazing… I liked her “middle margins” idea so much I implemented it into my own system!
Your handwriting is beautiful. Mine would probably disqualify me from writing a commonplace book (or anything that's supposed to be legible).