Commonplace book - A powerful tool for creativity, contemplation and inspiration
- Ramvardhan
- Feb 25, 2019
- 3 min read
Updated: Mar 9, 2021
What is a commonplace book?
Most of our minds can't handle a lot of information at once. We don't remember things for long. We might come across or get an awesome idea but get carried on with life and we forget them. A commonplace book is a place where you record all your ideas and other information you feel you might need later. The Roman emperor and philosopher Marcus Aurelius' commonplace book is what is compiled, translated and read by many people today - the book Meditations. It was his personal notebook which he most likely didn't intend to publish. Commonplace books have been used from a long time by a great many people.
You can use it to save your ideas, insights or some nice quote you came across today. Using a commonplace book, you can organize all of them for quick reference later. If you are mentally down, you can open up your commonplace book and be reminded of all those interesting ideas that you had. It can serve as a source of inspiration. It can help you create connections between different things and thus make you more creative.
It can even serve as a journal but a much more organized one.
My commonplace book
I started to maintain my commonplace book from the year 2017.
Mostly I've been using it to
Save interesting things I come across and interesting ideas I have.
Use it as a journal and also use it to contemplate.
Save quotes I like
Save online links to interesting articles
Save my own notes of non-fiction books and other information-rich materials I consume
Write down my goals
Mapping out the big picture
Write down my experiences
Many people use a paper notebook for their commonplace book, but I prefer to keep it digital because its easy to copy, paste into my book. Most of my information I get is from the internet so its easier to maintain it in my computer. I can also create backups. I can include images. Its very easy to organize your stuff in a digital note taking application than in paper. I use Microsoft OneNote 2010 for my commonplace book. Some people use note taking software like Evernote, but I found that Microsoft's OneNote is the best. Microsoft has a OneNote app, I don't use that because I can't save my note offline in my disk and I don't like the interface too.
But use what suits you. If you like to pen things down rather than typing them, go for a traditional book, else if you are comfortable with typing I strongly suggest that you go for a digital note taking application. By the way, don't use Microsoft word, its inefficient for these kind of things. Try Microsoft OneNote and you'll fall in love with it.
Here is how my commonplace book looks like:
The above screenshot is the section where I took notes on a youtube video on strategic thinking. Thanks to this notes, I can quickly review all the information of a 1 hr long video in minutes. I also have a book notes section where I take notes on good books I've read.
The above screenshot is my quotes section. Good for just scrolling thorough like you would on facebook.
Since I've been at it for more than a year, this notebook now contains a lot of information - almost all the interesting information I've collected. The longer you maintain this book, the more useful it will become. As you can see, there are many sections, subsections and subpages I have in my notebook. My most useful section is my journal section. I use it to contemplate, figure out things in my life and sometimes just to get some shit off my head (It works really well LOL).
If you are interested about this here are some links to some of my favorite content on commonplace book :
1. How To Keep The Ultimate Journal (Commonplace Book) + LIVE DEMO: https://youtu.be/0wNk25KEBpw
2. How and Why to Keep a Commonplace book by Ryan Holiday: https://ryanholiday.net/how-and-why-to-keep-a-commonplace-book/
I've wanted to have a blog for a long time, now I do and this is my first post. Let me know, if you like it.
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