Guide
How to start a commonplace book
A commonplace book is a notebook for the lines you never want to lose. Here is the simple system I have kept for six years.
Clara Whitfield2 min read
A commonplace book is an old idea with a plain name. You keep one notebook, and into it goes anything worth keeping: a sentence from a novel, a recipe note, something a friend said on a train, a fact you looked up at midnight. Writers, scientists and cooks have kept them for centuries.
Mine is six years old now and on its fourth volume. It is the most useful thing I own, and the system behind it is almost embarrassingly simple.
Choose one notebook
One, not several. The moment you have a notebook for books and another for ideas, you start deciding where things belong instead of writing them down. Pick something sturdy that lies flat and fits in a bag.
Copy by hand
It is slower than a screenshot, and that is the point. Copying a sentence makes you read it properly, sometimes for the first time. Always note where it came from: the book and page, the person, the date.
Number the pages and keep an index
- Number every page as you fill it.
- Leave the last few pages blank for an index.
- When you copy something, add one or two topic words to the index with the page number.
That index is what turns a pile of quotes into something you can actually use. After a year, a single word like “patience” or “bread” will point you to a small collection of thoughts you gathered without ever planning to.
Read it back
Once a month, with a coffee, read through the last few weeks. You will find connections you could not see while collecting, and you will remember why you started.
