Why should you keep a commonplace book?

My personal commonplace book.

Commonplace books have been around for centuries, from Roman and Greek philosphers to renaissance scholars. Commonplace books were a place for people to store knowledge for further reflection, including things like quotes from texts, notes about the text, recipes, scientific formulas, letters, etc.

Today, in the modern digital age, some may wonder why a commonplace book is still relevant. People have information at their fingertips through the Internet. But, I ask you, how easy is it for you to recall information you wish to look back on?

Organization of digital information is not the easiest, and the algorithm of any search engine will change without notice, ranking search results differently. Website links can break. Screenshots can get lost in an endless photo library. We are inundated with information in such a way that it's hard to remember all the information we consume, and it's hard to think deeply on the information we are exposed to.

Hence, why I'm a proponent of the commonplace book.

I like to think of the commonplace book as a personal book of knowledge. It's a place for you to keep information that you may or may not wish to look back on, and over time, as you reflect upon the information, you may also learn something about yourself.

Traditionally, a commonplace book is kept in an analog system, in a notebook or on notecards. With apps like Notion and Obisidan, a commonplace book can be kept digitally as well. Personally, I'm a proponent of starting with pen and paper because I do believe our brains absorb information differently when it is written by hand vs. typed on a digital device.

I have two commonplace books: a personal one and a work specific one. (I'll go into detail about each commonplace book in future posts.) I also use Obsidian to maintain a digital commonplace book.

My work specific commonplace book is very organized. I work in forensic science, and my commonplace book is categorized by the disciplines I practice. It's a lot of scientific texts with legal statutes mixed in, and I have a color code system to indicate the discipline each entry relates to.

My personal commonplace book, on the other hand, has less organization. I save what I feel like I want to save at any given time. At the moment, it's mostly quotes from fiction novels that resonate with me and a smattering of random information I picked up from the internet. I have a table of contents where I list the entries from books I've read, and I have an index in the back as well.

If you have a spare notebook laying around, I highly recommend giving it a try. Record the quotes that resonate with you from the media you consume or that funny conversation you overheard at the cafe. Keep the things that you find meaningful or informational in the moment, and overtime, as you reflect on what you've written, you may learn something about yourself or find inspriation to start a new hobby.

Do you keep a commonplace book? Have you ever tried keeping one?

Next week's post will be a deep dive into my work specific commonplace book.