First, what is commonplacing?

Commonplacing is the practice of keeping a certain type of journal where you collect your thoughts, factoids, quotes, recipes, notes, lyrics, and other types of things you’re interested in. There’s no one-size-fits-all rule to commonplacing.

Wiki answer to: What is a Commonplace Book?

It’s fun to learn how others keep their commonplace systems, whether on note cards, journals, or binders like me.

I discovered some Subreddit channels that are on the topics of Commonplace books, journaling: digital and analog, Personal Knowledge Systems, etc. I learned quite a bit from them.

There’s a concept of creating an index to list out the contents and place/page number of the contents. There are various systems.

Indexing

One of the things I learned about is indexing, which is mostly for commonplace books to make it easier to search and find different entries or types of entries. It’s a concept that could be used for journals as well.

There are digital indexes for digital gardens, aka personal knowledge systems. They could be anything from a website to a specialized software such as Obsidian or Notion, etc.

Here are some articles/resources for you:

Personal Knowledge Systems

Mostly writers, learners, creators, and researchers tend to gravitate towards the 2nd Brain concept and Personal Knowledge Systems.

Check out this Book Summary on Digital Note-taking: “Building a Second Brain” by Tiago Forte.

I’m a hoarder, including information. It’s like having scraps of paper with unrelated links and types of resources in a digital space somewhere.

There are different companies that have their own spin on a PKS.

YouTube Videos

68+ Note-Taking Apps: Find Your Perfect Digital Brain!

Watch this 3 Types of People Video first.

Which Note App Are YOU? Discover Your Perfect Digital Home! Are You an Architect, Librarian, or Gardener?

I might be a combination of a Librarian and a Student, just not as organized.

Notion is my current PKS / digital commonplace space. My personal YouTube account is an unconnected repository of my video rabbit trail findings. Most of my playlists are private.

Personal Commonplace System

So, back to indexing. I did create an index for my writing notes binder. Have others to go.

As you’ve probably guessed, this is not a “Here’s my system, you should use it for yourself too” blog post. It’s more of a “Here’s my organized mess and pretty pictures with helpful links” post.

Binder Gallery

Book and Class Notes

I have an unorganized mess of 7+ binders that I am storing my book and class notes in. I have divided the colors into topics or types of notes. I don’t remember all that I have, and I might work on relabeling some of them to a different focus. I bought these as a set from Amazon. I wanted something pretty and classy for myself. The green and black ones might get repurposed. Not sure yet. We’ll see.

Working Binders

These three clipboard binders are my Notes/writing binders.

The pastel one is my personal learning note-taking book.

The solid blue one is my professional work-related note-taking binder.

The dark blue/gold one is my creative writing binder for my works in progress. Such as the book I’m working on, LionHawk, my personal blog, and Substack newsletters. And miscellaneous writings

Digital Commonplace App

My Notion has over 60+ pages of work and personal notes, links, and information I found online. It’s easier to use between my phone & computer as a digital catch-all.

Wrap Up

I don’t do a traditional commonplace book. And you don’t have to either.

I’d be interested to hear from other commonplacers what their system is like and what topics they mainly write about.

As a reward for reading my blog post, here’s a fun link to Commonplacing Quotes.

A well-arranged scrapbook, filled with choice selections, is a most excellent companion for anyone who has the least literary taste. ~Chaning, as quoted in Charles F. Schutz, Sayings: Proverbs, Maxims, Mottoes, 1915

Commonplacing

First, what is commonplacing?

Indexing