I started a journal when I began going to therapy back in November 2024. It was nice to journal about my day, write down some nice things that had happened, and keep track of my progress. Keeping a journal/diary worked for me then, and I'm thankful for it. I learned a lot about what triggered my moods and how to control my negative thinking. I outgrew my journal around May/June, and in July I decided to start a commonplace book instead.
A commonplace book is a way to compile knowledge, quotes, letters, poems, definitions, recipes, lists, remedies, and so on. They are often used by students, readers, writers, and scholars as an aid for remembering useful concepts or facts.
Pages from a commonplace book kept by Charles Dodgson (better known as Lewis Carroll) with information about ciphers, anagrams, stenography, and labyrinths. Via University of Texas.
English Enlightenment philosopher John Locke's commonplacing habit, and subsequent book, led to students at universities like Oxford in the 17th-century being formally taught commonplacing as an academic practice. Locke taught techniques for recording proverbs, quotations, ideas, and speeches into a commonplace book, as well as how to arrange material by subject and category using such key topics as love, politics, or religion.
Locke's method was not just used for collecting, but for encouraging people to curate and filter their information consumption, making sure only the quality parts were remembered.
Many other famous figures in history have kept commonplace books, including Isaac Newton, Virginia Woolf, Francis Bacon, Robert Burns, and John Milton.
I personally don't use John Locke's method. It's a method that many do use, but I found it too formal. I read up on commonplace books for weeks before starting one, and I came to the conclusion that there really are no rules. I gravitated towards commonplacing specifically because it felt free and 'lawless', unlike a journal or diary. My commonplace book is not organised into categories or subjects, it's just a place where I dump my favourite quotes, topics, book excerpts, and essays alongside pictures, stickers, and random ephemera.
I've been really enjoying the process - it's helped me reconnect with the written word, it's kept me from mindlessly scrolling on my phone for hours at a time, and it's made me realise who I am, what I love, and what I stand for.
Here are some snippets of my own commonplace book.
The first double spread. Begins with Naomi Berger's The Art of Not Being Offended which I encourage everyone to read.
More quotations I love.
I'm not much of a poetry gal. I used to hate it when I did Creative Writing at university and I had to spend whole modules analysing poems I didn't care for, but I must admit I've grown to appreciate it. Maggie Smith's Good Bones is one of the few poems I actually adore.
The Major Oak is a tree I've visited many times in my life. It's nestled in Sherwood Forest, the remnants of an ancient Royal Forest in Nottinghamshire. You may know it from its association with Robin Hood.
A double spread on Frutiger Aero, the mid-00s/early-2010s design style.
This is only 2/5 pages I wrote on the Arnolfini Portrait. I really do love this painting a lot.
If you're interested in starting a commonplace book, I'd recommend checking r/commonplacebook and perhaps looking into different commonplacing methods to see which one works for you.
Information: Wikipedia, The Writing Cooperative, Mrs Blackwell, Forte Labs.
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