2 Ways to Keep a Commonplace Book

If you enjoy this kind of content and have learned something, or just want to promote videos on the intellectual life, please consider supporting my efforts by becoming a Patreon patron here: patreon.com/ParkNotes

I'm starting a notebook I've titled, "The Good, the True and the Beautiful." I plan on filling it with notes and quotes that inspire me and nourish my soul.

I love notebooks! I searched how to organize my notebooks and found you!! All of your videos are so helpful. I organized 4 notebooks scrambled with thoughts, goals, to do lists, quotes and just silly ideas. I bought 4 new cashier notebooks and named them all after your advice. 1- quotes, one liners, jokes 2- to do ideas. House work, yard work, self work, work work 3- journal, today feelings Thank you and keep it coming!!

We'd always talked about doing this with hilarious things our kids said growing up and unfortunately never did. I've actually never heard of them being called commonplace - but I love the idea and how applicable it is for so many things. Great vid! Thanks!

My mother wrote event down on pieces of paper , left them all over the house and in books. When she died as they were found we put them in stacks as to who they were about and gave to each of us girls. It would be nice to gather them all and make a common place book.

Such great ideas. Proverbs is just fantastic. So glad to see a channel related to notebooks, philosophy and theology. New subscriber!

Wow. This is so simple, yet so interesting to me. I’d always try to write anything and everything in one journal, but I could never stick with it because all my thoughts were disorganized/random and my perfectionist nature would kick in. Seeing someone else organize their thoughts so meticulously in many different commonplace books is quite fascinating to me in this day and age where technology has taken over and we scroll more on social media than take time to write down and reflect what we have learned (at least for me). 😅 Thanks for sharing!

I liked the "getting to know myself" note book with a bunch of why questions. At least once a week i find myself having some mixed feelings about stuff. And it would be great if i actually sat down journaled on the why. Great video!

i use both types. i've been journalling since i was ten (i blame Batman: The Animated Series for that one) or so and eventually needed to split my journal up. putting everything into one book ate through books too quickly and made information harder to retrieve. i split my journal into my journal, reference (roughly analogous to your compendium), thoughts in process, and an index. i have since added on a physical zettelkasten and a digital zettelkasten, each used for different things. the index is now replicated digitally as well. i'm a hobbiest bookbinder. i stitch up two signatures, one for references and one for thoughts, and keep them in a removable cover. when they are full they go with other signatures for their given type until there are enough to bind into a volume. it's a bit labor intensive, but i thoroughly enjoy the whole process. an upside i didn't realize until somewhat recently is that if i ever lose a signature for whatever reason, it's only twelve pages lost at most. i have a very different origin and approach than most because i sorta happened onto most of what i do by happenstance rather than learning about it from other people, zettelkasten being the exception. it's a bit of a mess, but it works for me.

I've been doing this for years. All my thoughts, project plans, and the many lists for my many interests are written in cursive. I enjoy writing in cursive. It slows down my thoughts as i concentrate on my technique. I did not know there was a name for what I have been doing. Thanks for the guidance. I believe I'll be changing how I organize my writing for now on. It's interesting going back to a journal and seeing what my interests were at the time and what I was thinking.

I journal in two notebooks everyday: one for reflecting on my actions and the events during a day and one for expanding on general ideas I have or read about. This video inspired me to separate my journal of general ideas into two or maybe more commonplace books and perhaps even start more on other nonfiction genres. Great video man.

I do like the idea option more than the quotes. Watching this really makes me wish I had written stuff down. So many good thoughts and ideas start to become forgotten or skewed over time. I think the quote option is less practical for me, but I see the benefit.

I've only just discovered commonplace books (as a formal term) recently, although I've kept what more or less amounts to them for decades. For the longest time they largely consisted of quotes, story ideas (for the fiction I write), and overheard snippets of conversations, which also tend to find their way into stories. (People say the darndest things...!) I've also tended to keep other notebooks and computer files for things that are like what you describe here, but I do want to try to consolidate things into more traditional commonplace books. I also want to start an analog Zettelkasten but that's a whole other project!

I think I'm more of a absorber than creator/thinker, so I think it would benefit me to create a quotes/compendium where I can ruminate on, and hopefully branch out to my own ideas as I start to form my own opinions on things.

I've been playing with the idea keeping a commonplace book where I gather some thought-out ideas, arguments, and quotes, and finding a place for it on my coffee table for friends and family to freely read. It's purpose is not only for my circle to get to know me deeper, but to also share my thought-provoking experiences and hopefully spark some meaningful conversations. I see this opening the door for me to be challenged and at the same time get to know the reader better.

The fine line between cyberpunk and hobbit is one I've been trying to straddle for a long time and still haven't figured out, I totally get this. 😂

I'm so happy I found your channel. You got my attention talking about notebooks and deep thoughts on different topics. I have a thing for notebooks to record my thoughts, ideas, genealogical research... I have been keeping lovely notebooks for many years. I didn't know there are others out there who love to do the same. Your videos are helping me focus my use and purpose of my notebooks, and making me feel more comfortable with my need to record important things in them for me and future readers. Thank you!

I'm currently in the process of converting my common place books/journals/bullet journal type of thing I've going on into a digital resource to be able to find quotes more often and read through them when I want something to think about on my commutes. So nice to see a channel sharing about common place books!

This video alone got me to subscribe. Truly enjoyed it and need more of these! I’ve always been drawn more towards analog methods of learning, writing, etc. and thought I was alone when I had several different notebooks for several different things lol. Every time I try to put them into one book, I get stumped and need to separate them again. Glad to know I’m not flying solo with compartmentalizing commonplace books!

Man I'm LOVING these videos. I love the idea of having commonplace books or compendiums that others can freely read and learn from.