Introduction to the Commonplace Book

You know that feeling: you've read something profound or interesting or inspiring and you know you'll want to remember it later.

You've marked the page with a bookmark, a scrap of paper, maybe a book dart or a turned over corner (tut! tut!).

And then — if you're anything like I used to be — the marked inspiration goes no further. Six months later, when I'm trying to recall which book that great quote was from, the stack of too-be-processes wisdom just seems overwhelming.

So, when Ryan Holiday introduced me to the concept of a Commonplace Book my fortunes changed and my wordy mementos found their very own home.

What is a commonplace book?

In its simplest form, a commonplace book is a place to record and organise all those quotes, stories, and ideas from other people so that you can recall them to inspire you in the future. 

In fact, if you’ve tried (and failed) at keeping a journal or diary in the past, a commonplace book might be a good alternative. But even if you’re an avid journaler, a commonplace book is something quite different and complementary. They’re something like a scrapbook for your thoughts, a place to collect notes, quotes, poems, and facts that you may wish to refer back to in the future. 

Of course, this could be a digital system, but for me, revisiting and handwriting helps me remember and improves my understanding so I like to keep it all in an actual book. 

Commonplace books have been kept since antiquity and were quite popular through the 19th century.  Intellectual women, who were often excluded from formal education, kept them and might include quotes and proverbs as well as recipes, etiquette, and housekeeping advice that would have been relevant to them. Scientists even used them as early forms of databases. 

Tiago Forte, author of Building a Second Brain, has compiled an interesting and extensive history of the practice — and cites it as a predecessor to his own work with a digital “second brain” based on a similar goal. 

Making a commonplace book work for you

You'll have a sense for the kind of system that would work for your lifestyle, but whatever works best for you, a key part of long term commonplace success is to have an indexing system.

I use the indexing system from the Bullet Journal Method to keep track of my inspiration, but some people like to use a pre-filled index book or sets of index cards that they can shift around and reorganise by subject.

The philosopher John Locke wrote an entire treatise on Commonplace books, including detailed instructions on how to organise them by subject and category. His work was so well received that publishers began printing blank books with spaces specifically for the subject and category on each page.

Don’t try to settle on your subjects or keywords before you begin; you will almost certainly amend them as you find interesting bits of information to include in your book.

Instead, think about how you might use it in the future. It’s ok if you’re not totally sure.  But if you’re a writer, for example, you’re likely to want to be able to find quotes by subject and author so that you can quote them in your work. If you want to facilitate deeper thinking, subject or keyword alone might be enough. If you imagine yourself collecting facts and figures for future reference, think when you might need them and how you would look for them.

There’s no right or wrong way to set it up, and it’s likely you will refine your system as you go. 

Choosing your tools

Of course, I wouldn’t be the papyrophiliac (lover of all things paper) that I am without including a section on choosing the right tools to create your commonplace book.

You might choose a traveller’s notebook-style system if you want to keep different types of thoughts in separate journals (quotes vs. recipes vs. facts, for example). We offer an array of Traveller’s supplies at the bookshop. 

Bullet journalers often prefer a Lechtturm notebook for its quality and thick paper that reduces ghosting and bleed-through of inks.  

But the best notebook is always the one that appeals to you.

I was delighted when I found out recently that the honey bee is a symbol for the commonplace book. As the bee gathers nutrients from a variety of flowers to enable the production of honey, we gather together inspiration from multiple sources and our unique history and perspective brings them together to create something new - and hopefully sweeter too. In the first century AD, Seneca the Younger suggested that readers collect commonplace ideas and sententiae (more commonly known as proverbs or axioms) like a bee and turn them into their own distilled, honey-like words.

Ever since, my Esterbrook Honeybee page holder has taken on a special level of meaning whenever I'm using it in conjunction with my commonplace book.