Why I Love Commonplace Books + How To Start Your Own

I just realized that Pinterest is kind of a Commonplace book for me. The only downside is that they can censor you.

‘even though they aren’t my own words, the things you resonate with are a reflection of yourself and where you are in your life’….. this is the perfect summary and may become the first phrase in my first commonplace book! ❤

I’ve been keeping a commonplace book for years….just didn’t know that’s what it was called until a few years ago. I first came upon the term when I was doing research on a type of note taking that totally intrigued me called Zettelkasten. Goodness, THAT was a rabbit hole of information. Most of my commonplace note taking is in Notion now but I still use notebooks cause at heart, I’m a scribe, a paper and pen gal. Thanks for sharing yours with us! ☺️

I’ve kept so many notebooks with lyrics, quotes, book passages and small story ideas since I was 12, and never realized this is what they’re called. I stopped doing it after a couple of years because I felt like I was being unoriginal not using them to write my own thoughts and writings.p, but I want to start again after watching this video. It brought me joy when I used to do it, and I honestly need that in my life right now. Thank you for making your video :)

I have been keeping quotes I like in an unsent email draft for years. Interesting the way that so many people do it in such different ways.

I’ve been doing this almost my whole life. Here’s my problem, I don’t keep mine in a book that holds it all together in one place. I’ve been writing things down all over the place😂 half written in notebooks, note paper, sticky notes here and there! I have to get it together and write in ONE Commonplace book! Great video and beautiful notebook.

I have poor retention and recall because of fibromyalgia and ADHD. It's really made consuming content less enjoyable, particularly if I'm trying to learn something. This might actually be a big help.

I learned about a commonplace book in A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS in gradeschool and started keeping them in high school. It's always helped me with my writing process when I have a story idea I want to experiment with outside of my rough draft, as well as research for worldbuilding and writing craft.

I’m an artist and I use my ‘commonplace books’ as sketchbooks as well and since I not only place quotes and useful information there, but journal as well (reflecting on what happens in my life), I like to keep one leather notebook where I snap several notebooks with ribbons and it’s much more customizable than just one notebook. I tried keeping just one, but it was a mess because I haven’t categorized anything, so now I also write marginal notes in my journals because I’m too impatient to make table of content and it will distract me to flip through pages to write the theme down. Marginal notes are also very flexible, you can write themes, key words, quotes, book names, authors, your personal notes, redirect yourself to different page of your journal (I number pages of my journals/buy leuchtrum ones that come numbered already), make corrections or just write again something you’d like to highlight even more. As for my writing/drawing tool I use fountain pen (Pilot Falcon) and Walnut ink (I love it’s warm brown hue). Anyway, nice video, keep it up 🐸📕🖋️

I've been doing this since I was 14 and only now learnt this term. I used to say "they say my feeling in their words" everytime I collected a quote, a lyric, an excerpt from an interview. Its a book made up of what makes me me

After I graduated high school, I unknowingly started a commonplace book. It was FILLED with qoutes from books I enjoyed. I was in a bad mental place and I threw it out. I wish i didnt. I havent thought about it much since, but now I know "my silly little qoute book" had a name. It wasnt at all silly. It was beautiful. I am going to start it again, this time I am going to keep it.

8:01 I don't even know why I clicked on this video because I had never heard of doing this, but as soon as you described what a commonplace book was at the beginning, I immediately thought of how my ADD anxiety really thwart my memory when it comes to anything that my body isn't determining as expressly dire information (so, work and school stuff basically) and I get mental burnout so much. what you describe at this timestamp is EXACTLY why I got excited by the beginning of this video, and I'm so happy that this isn't just for me! it's how I'm able to remember important complex new information when I'm studying for a class, I don't know why it didn't occur to me to do this for things I'm interested in or love!

the cover of the book you show in the beginning is INSANELY good, I couldn't keep my eyes out of it

I didn't know this type of notebook had a name! Very cool. Also, I love the idea to "consume content that is worth keeping." Great way to evaluate our media consumption.

This is a marvelous coincidence because I just entered a couple quotations/ advice I got from another YouTube channel and I just wrote it really nicely in this empty notebook that I had which was beautiful and I thought to myself “you know what I’m gonna enter every piece of advice or code that resonates with me in here” and just when I put the notebook away, I saw this video wow.

As a multidisciplinary artist I've been doing this for years. I had no idea this has been a long standing human tradition! I call my notebooks reference books because they inform what ever future project I will be doing. Thank you for sharing!

I’ve been commonplacing, and book journaling, since I was 12; although I did not know to call it that for a long time. It’s so cool to get better at it, and to look back over years and years of entries. Cool channel, glad I found you.

Your comment about our curated feeds keeping us outraged is so true. I have begun to feel information exhaustion, so I am fasting social media every other month as a new year's resolution/goal. Also, you mentioning that writing helps us remember and process notable information is a good point. Thank you for sharing this beautiful notebook here.

This is like irl reblogging/retweeting, I like it

Interesting! I'd never heard of these before, but I'm guessing my sister did: back in the 80s, she shared a journal with her friends, and it was filled with random quotes, snips of conversation, anything they found interesting, and I was always so jealous of it. I have always sucked at journaling - it was required in a few classes I took - and rather than track my feelings/events, I always tended to just note anything I found interesting that day, so the idea of a Commonplace book really resonates with me. Thanks for sharing!