what is a commonplace book? 💫 journal & chat #1

Summary

Dieses Video präsentiert die Praxis des Commonplacing, das Sammeln und Aufschreiben von inspirierenden Zitaten, Fakten und persönlichen Gedanken in einem gemeinsamen Heft. Die Hostin teilt ihre persönliche Geschichte mit dem Commonplacing, diskutiert seine Geschichte und Vorteile für das Gedächtnis und die Kreativität und zeigt, wie sie ihre eigenen Einträge mit Dekorationen anreichert. Sie ermutigt auch zu digitalen Alternativen und reflektiert über die Bedeutung von Commonplacing in der modernen Welt.

Takeaways

• 📓 Ein Commonplace-Buch ist ein leeres Notizbuch, in dem man geschriebene Materialien sammelt, die man für wichtig hält.
• 📝 Commonplacing ist die Praxis, Inhalte wie Sprichwörter, Gedichte, Zitate, persönliche Schriften und vieles mehr in einem Notizbuch zu sammeln.
• 🚫 Klassische Commonplace-Bücher enthalten normalerweise keine Tagebucheinträge, da diese als separates Notebook-System angesehen wurden.
• 📚 In der modernen Zeit hat das Commonplacing sich erweitert, um auch andere Arten von Informationsspeicherung, wie Fotos, Drucke und digitale Notizen, einzubeziehen.
• 💡 Commonplacing fördert das Gedächtnis und kann eine erfüllende kreative Praxis sein, die auch als entspannende Aktivität empfunden werden kann.
• 📈 Die Praxis des Commonplacings hat sich im Laufe der Zeit entwickelt, von der Antike über das Mittelalter bis hin zur Frühen Neuzeit, wo es bei Universitäten gelehrt und von führenden Denkern verwendet wurde.
• 🎨 Commonplacing kann auch eine Form der Kreativität sein, bei der man sein Commonplace-Buch nach Belieben gestalten kann, ob nun funktional oder dekorativ.
• 🔍 Die Geschichte des Commonplacings reicht von antiken Griechen und Römern bis hin zu berühmten Persönlichkeiten wie John Milton und John Locke, die eigene Commonplace-Bücher führten.
• 📱 Einige Menschen haben Commonplacing in die digitale Ära übertragen, indem sie Apps wie Evernote oder Notion verwenden, um Informationen zu sammeln und zu organisieren.
• 🌐 Commonplacing ist nicht auf das physische Schreiben beschränkt und kann auch in digitalen Formaten durchgeführt werden, was Flexibilität und persönliche Anpassung erlaubt.
• 🌟 Die Praxis des Commonplacings findet auch in der Fiktion statt, mit Beispielen wie Sherlock Holmes, der ein Commonplace-Buch in seinen Erzählungen nutzt.

Q & A

Was ist ein Commonplace-Buch und was beinhaltet es traditionell?

Ein Commonplace-Buch ist ein leeres Notizbuch, das jemand verwendet, um geschriebene Materialien zu transkribieren, die er sammeln möchte. Traditionell beinhaltete es vor allem Sprichwörter, aber auch Lieblingsgedichte, interessante Fakten, Zitate aus Büchern oder eigenes Schreiben wie Essays, Prosastücke oder wunderschöne Phrasen.

Was unterscheidet ein Commonplace-Buch im modernen Zeitalter von einem klassischen Commonplace-Buch?

Im modernen Zeitalter hat die Praxis des Commonplacing erweitert, um auch andere Arten von Informationsspeicherung einzubeziehen, wie zum Beispiel Fotografien, gedruckte Bilder, persönliche Texte und sogar digitales Sammeln mit Apps wie Notion oder Evernote.

Warum sollte man ein Commonplace-Buch führen?

Ein Commonplace-Buch hilft dabei, das Gedächtnis zu trainieren, ist eine bereichernde kreative Praxis, kann ästhetisch ansprechend gestaltet werden und bietet eine entspannende und befriedigende Tätigkeit, die fast meditative Züge besitzt.

Was ist die Geschichte des Commonplacing?

Das Commonplacing hat Wurzeln in der Antike in Griechenland und Rom, wobei gelehrte Männer Bücher sammelten, um Grammatikregeln, Redewendungen und Beobachtungen zu notieren. Es blühte im frühen modernen Zeitalter auf, als es an Universitäten gelehrt wurde und von führenden Denkern, Schriftstellern und Theologen praktiziert wurde.

Welche berühmten Persönlichkeiten haben ein Commonplace-Buch geführt?

Berühmte Personen wie John Milton, Robert Burns, John Locke, Virginia Woolf und sogar der US-Präsident Ronald Reagan haben ein Commonplace-Buch geführt.

In welchem Videoformat wurde das Commonplacing in diesem Skript vorgestellt?

Das Commonplacing wurde in einem 'Journal and Chat'-Videoformat vorgestellt, bei dem der Sprecher ihre Commonplace-Buch-Aktivitäten zeigt und gleichzeitig über das Commonplacing spricht.

Was sind die Hauptgründe, die den Sprecher dazu brachten, ein Commonplace-Buch wieder aufzunehmen?

Der Sprecher suchte nach einer Methode, um Informationen zu sammeln und zu organisieren, die ihr wichtig waren, und fand die Praxis des Commonplacing nachhaltig und aufregender als andere Systeme, die sie zuvor ausprobiert hatte.

Wie hat sich die Praxis des Commonplacing im Laufe der Zeit entwickelt?

Die Praxis hat sich von der reinen Sammlung von Zitaten und Sprichwörtern erweitert und heute beinhaltet sie auch die Aufnahme von Fotografien, gedruckten Bildern, digitalen Texten und sogar Journal-Einträgen.

Was sind die persönlichen Erfahrungen des Sprechers mit Commonplacing?

Der Sprecher begann mit Commonplacing im Jahr 2019 und ging durch verschiedene Systeme, von digitalen Apps wie Evernote und Notion bis hin zu handgeschriebenen Büchern. Sie fanden schließlich ein System, das sowohl funktional als auch ästhetisch ansprechend ist, in einem dot grid-Notizbuch.

Wie kann Commonplacing als kreative Praxis aufgefasst werden?

Commonplacing kann als kreative Praxis betrachtet werden, da es nicht nur die Sammlung von Informationen umfasst, sondern auch die Möglichkeit bietet, das Commonplace-Buch mit eigenen Illustrationen, Stempeln, Stickern und anderen kreativen Elementen zu gestalten.

Outlines

00:00

📓 Einführung in das Commonplacing

Dieses Video stellt eine neue Serie namens 'Journal and Chat' vor, die sich mit dem Konzept des Commonplacing befasst. Commonplacing ist die Praxis, in ein sogenanntes Commonplace Book zu notieren, in dem man Zitate, Gedichte, interessante Fakten, Buchauszüge und persönliche Schriften sammelt. Das Video soll die Geschichte des Commonplacings, die persönliche Erfahrung des Sprechers damit und seine Prozesse im Detail beschreiben. Es wird auch die Möglichkeit des Commonplacings in digitaler Form diskutiert, und wie man es an seine eigenen Bedürfnisse anpassen kann.

05:00

🧠 Commonplacing für Erinnerung und Kreativität

Der zweite Absatz betont die Vorteile des Commonplacings für das Gedächtnis und die Kreativität. Es hilft, Informationen zu sammeln, die im Überfluss an heutigen Informationen wichtig sind, und fördert die kreative Ausdrucksweise durch das Dekorieren des Commonplace Books. Der Sprecher teilt seine persönlichen Gründe für das Commonplacing, darunter die Entspannung und die Meditation, die ihm das Schreiben in sein Commonplace Book bringt.

10:01

📚 Geschichte des Commonplacings

Dieser Absatz bietet einen Überblick über die Geschichte des Commonplacings, von seinen Wurzeln in der Antike über das Mittelalter bis hin zur Frühen Neuzeit. Bekannte Persönlichkeiten wie John Milton, Robert Burns und John Locke haben eigene Commonplace Books geführt. Der Sprecher teilt auch, wie das Commonplacing in der modernen Zeit fortgeführt wird und wie es durch berühmte Schreiber wie Virginia Woolf und sogar U.S. Präsident Ronald Reagan geprägt wurde.

15:03

📖 Persönliche Commonplacing-Geschichte

Der vierte Absatz beschreibt die persönliche Reise des Sprechers mit dem Commonplacing, beginnend mit seiner Wiederentdeckung des Lesens und Schreibens im Jahr 2019. Er erzählt von seinen Erfahrungen mit digitalen und analogen Commonplace Books und wie er schließlich zu einem System übergegangen ist, das sowohl funktional als auch ästhetisch ansprechend ist.

20:03

🌐 Commonplacing in der digitalen Welt

In diesem Absatz reflektiert der Sprecher seine Erfahrungen mit digitalen Commonplace-Tools wie Evernote und Notion. Er diskutiert die Vor- und Nachteile dieser Apps und warum er schließlich zu handschriftlichen Notizbüchern zurückgekehrt ist, um sein Commonplace Book zu führen.

25:04

🍂 Commonplacing als Moment der Inspiration

Der letzte Absatz beschreibt, was der Sprecher in dem gezeigten Videoclip tat – er fügt Zitate und Tumblr-Posts zu seinem Commonplace Book hinzu. Er erklärt, dass er gerne Zitate sammelt, die ihn inspirieren, bestätigen, herausfordern oder zum Lachen bringen, und wie er seine Seiten mit Dekorationen anpasst, die entweder zum Inhalt passen oder einfach dem Stil entsprechen, den er gerade mag.

Keywords

💡Commonplace Book

Ein 'Commonplace Book' ist ein Notizbuch, das zur Aufnahme von Texten, Zitaten, Gedichten oder anderen geschriebenen Materialien verwendet wird, die der Besitzer sammeln möchte. Im Video wird es als Mittel zur Erhaltung von Wissen und zur persönlichen Reflexion beschrieben, wobei der Sprecher seine persönliche Geschichte mit Commonplace Books teilt und erklärt, wie er es nutzt.

💡Journal and Chat

Dieses Konzept bezeichnet die neue Serie des Videos, bei der es um das Journalieren geht und gleichzeitig eine Diskussion über ein bestimmtes Thema, in diesem Fall 'Commonplacing'. Es ist ein Format, das den Zuschauern erlaubt, den Sprecher beim Journalieren zu beobachten und gleichzeitig Informationen über ein Thema zu erhalten.

💡Memory

Im Video wird 'Memory' als ein Grund für das Commonplacing hervorgehoben. Es dient als Hilfsmittel, um Informationen zu speichern und später leichter abrufbar zu machen. Ein Beispiel ist, wie der Sprecher erwähnt, dass Commonplacing hilfreich ist, um die Überflutung an Informationen, die wir täglich konfrontiert sind, zu bewältigen.

💡Creativity

Die Kreativität wird als eine der Hauptgründe für das Commonplacing betrachtet. Es ermöglicht es dem Sprecher, verschiedene kreative Praktiken in einem Buch zu verbinden, wie Schreiben, Zeichnen und Calligraphie, und wird als eine Art Meditation beschrieben, die zur Entspannung beiträgt.

💡History

Der Begriff 'History' bezieht sich auf die historischen Wurzeln des Commonplacing, die im antiken Griechenland und Rom begannen und bis in die frühe Neuzeit reichen. Im Video wird die Entwicklung des Commonplacing von der Antike bis heute diskutiert, einschließlich der berühmten Personen, die Commonplace Bücher führten.

💡Digital

Im Video wird die Verwendung von digitalen Tools für das Commonplacing diskutiert. Einige Menschen wenden digitale Anwendungen wie Notion oder Evernote an, um ihre Informationen zu sammeln und zu organisieren, anstatt ein physisches Notizbuch zu verwenden. Der Sprecher teilt auch seine Erfahrungen mit digitalen und analogen Commonplace-Systemen.

💡Aesthetic

Das Konzept der 'Ästhetik' bezieht sich auf die visuelle Anordnung und Dekoration des Commonplace Books. Im Video erwähnt der Sprecher, dass er sich für ein System interessiert, das sowohl funktional als auch ästhetisch ansprechend ist, indem er sein Commonplace Book mit Bildern, Aufklebern und anderen Dekorationselementen anreichert.

💡Megan Rhiannon

Megan Rhiannon ist eine YouTube-Schöpferin, die im Video erwähnt wird, weil sie eine beeinflussende Figur für den Sprecher war, was das Commonplacing betrifft. Ihre Methode des Mixens von handgeschriebenen Notizen und ästhetisch ansprechenden Elementen inspirierte den Sprecher, sein eigenes Commonplace-System zu entwickeln.

💡Personal Writings

Persönliche Schreibungen beziehen sich auf den eigenen Text, den jemand in sein Commonplace Book einbezieht, wie Essays, Prosa oder andere Formen der Selbstausdrückung. Im Video erklärt der Sprecher, dass Commonplace Bücher auch persönliche Schreibungen enthalten können, die dem Besitzer wichtig sind oder die er für die Zukunft speichern möchte.

💡Categorization

Die 'Kategorisierung' ist das System, bei dem Informationen in einem Commonplace Book nach Themen oder Kategorien organisiert werden. Im Video erwähnt der Sprecher, dass einige Menschen ihre Commonplace Bücher nach Themen kategorisieren, während er selbst vorzog, ein chaotisches System ohne klare Überschriften zu verwenden.

Highlights

Introduction to a new video series called 'Journal and Chat' where the creator shares their journaling process and discusses interesting topics.

The creator is working in their commonplace book, a practice that combines journaling with collecting written materials.

Commonplacing is defined as the act of transcribing materials one wishes to remember, historically starting with proverbs and expanding to various forms of text.

Personal writings, such as essays and prose, can also be included in a commonplace book, although traditional ones did not include journaling.

Modern commonplacing has evolved to include photographs, printed pictures, and digital note-taking apps like Notion or Evernote.

The creator discusses the flexibility of commonplacing, allowing for personalization to fit individual interests and methods.

Commonplacing is promoted as beneficial for memory, creativity, and as a relaxing, meditative practice.

A brief history of commonplacing is given, tracing its roots from ancient Greece and Rome through the medieval era to the early modern period.

Notable figures such as John Milton, Robert Burns, and John Locke are mentioned as practitioners of commonplacing in history.

The creator shares their personal journey with commonplacing, starting in 2019 and experimenting with various methods, including digital and physical notebooks.

The video discusses the creator's shift from digital note-taking apps like Evernote to a preference for handwriting in physical notebooks.

Mental health struggles led to a temporary halt in commonplacing, but the creator returned to the practice inspired by YouTube creators.

The creator settled on a mixed functional and decorative system for their commonplace book, influenced by Megan Rhiannon's approach.

The video concludes with the creator's current commonplace book setup, including the use of quotes, Tumblr posts, and various decorations.

The creator invites feedback from viewers about their own commonplacing systems and encourages subscription for more content.

Transcripts

hello and welcome to another video I

hope you're all doing well today's video

is a journal with me in fact it's part

of a new series that I'm going to call

journal and chat so it's part journal

with me that's the video clip you're

seeing specifically I'm working in my

commonplace book today and then in the

voiceover I'm gonna chat with you about

a very fun topic one that I hope a lot

of you will find interesting and that is

just everything to do with the practice

of common placing what it is why you

should do it it's history my personal

history with it and I'll talk a bit

about what I was common placing in this

video and my process for doing that if

you're not interested in any of that

rambling that is completely fine feel

free to mute me and treat this just as a

journaling body double video you can pop

your own music on choose some peaceful

silence over my Dorset tones whatever

you want I will not be offended

anyway without further Ado let me

blabber about common placing because I'm

not joking I have written 3 600 plus

words of notes about this we're gonna be

here for a while so I better get started

first of all I thought I would talk a

bit about what a commonplace book

actually is and what commonplaceing is

for anyone who might not be familiar

with it I mean if you're on this channel

you probably are at least a little bit

but you never know so in its most basic

classic form a commonplace book is a

blank notebook that a person uses to

transcribe written materials that they

want to collect to begin with in history

that was mostly Proverbs those famous

old sayings that tend to impart wisdom

of one sort or another but people also

write you know poems that they love

interesting facts that they want to

remember excerpts from books any kind of

copied text that they want to preserve

and remember

a person might also include their own

personal writings in a commonplace book

essays they've written smaller bits of

prose outlines of pieces they want to

write or little Snippets of beautiful

phrasing that they want to remember they

might include recipes prayers or

religious musings interesting phrases

basically any kind of written

information that you can think of

however one thing that classical

commonplace books didn't typically

include was journaling or diary writing

that seems to have been seen as a

different practice for a different

notebook and you know I'm all for

collecting multiple notebooks

just saying anyway some people keep

commonplace books on just one topic

others commonplace about multiple topics

with different headings for each or

different categorization systems and

some people by some people I mean me

commonplace about multiple topics

without clear headings all the time or

categorization because we just love

chaos basically I I love a notebook

filled with chaos I have even tried to

categorize things in the past which I'll

talk about later and give it up because

turns out I just like chaos I don't know

what that says about me as a person but

let's move back to General information

about comma blessing and out of my brain

in the modern era common placing has

really expanded to include other

information keeping I guess due to the

huge expansion in the types of content

we have available to us these days and

also due to technological advances that

help with collecting information

people often stick photographs or

printed pictures in their books of maybe

art they love interesting artifacts

otherwise intriguing pictures special to

them images you know personal pictures

and people also print out pieces of text

and stick them into the book instead of

copying them out another change in the

modern era is that some people do choose

to incorporate Journal style entries

into their books for example Megan

Rihanna does this

I also do it I guess for me it's just

nice to have the one book for all

long-form writing it just keeps things

simpler and more compact

some people have even gone digital

instead of keeping their commonplace

book in an actual physical book they use

digital information gathering apps like

notion or Evernote or they might have a

combination of both if that floats the

boat a combination of written

commonplace and digital commonplace

there really are just so many options

with common placing and that's one of

the things that makes it really great to

me at least you can really tailor the

practice to what you want and what you

find fulfilling and interesting so

that's a basic introduction to the

practice now I'm going to answer a

common question I get from people who

aren't really in the notebook journaling

space which is why bother isn't that a

lot of effort and yeah it is a bit of

effort but it's fun first of all and

there are a lot of in my opinion very

good reasons to your commonplace the

first is that it's great for memory

because goodness knows our brains cannot

keep up with the absolute bombardment of

information that the modern world just

voices upon us at all times there's just

no hope of us remembering everything we

come across that we think is cool so

yeah your commonplace book can be a

helping hand a place to refer back to

when you want to remember things

common placing can also be a really

enriching creative practice

note that it doesn't actually have to be

a commonplace book doesn't have to be

you know aesthetically pleasing highly

decorated or even decorated at all like

it can be a rough and purely functional

notebook in which you write stuff down

but if you are creatively inclined it

can be so satisfying to find ways to

decorate your commonplace book to find

images that complement whatever you're

writing about and yeah it's just really

really fun in my opinion it's a fun way

to incorporate lots of different

creative practices all in one book for

me that's writing occasionally doodling

calligraphy which I'm not that good at

if I'm being honest but I enjoy it so

who cares and yeah it's just a really

nice work of art that you produce but

again to underscore it doesn't have to

be a work of art it can be whatever you

want it to be so please don't be put off

common placing if you're not someone who

likes to decorate things because you

truly do not need to it's optional

finally and this might just be personal

to me but I'm gonna say anyway I find

common placing really relaxing it's

really soothing to me and almost a form

of meditation like it's meditative I

really find it calming to sit and fill

my books pages with whatever I've

collected that day or that week or even

that month if I haven't been keeping up

with it which is the case right now

there's something extremely satisfying

as well about failing a Commonplace

Notebook and flipping through to see

pages and pages of exciting collected

stuff or at least I imagine it would be

satisfying I've actually never managed

to fill a commonplace book because I

keep switching systems and that is on me

but one day I'm sure I will get to that

point finally where I can do a full flip

through of a finished book

all right so hopefully now you're

convinced that you should be commonplace

in if you're not that's fine but as I

say I think it's cool so let's move on

to something else that I think is cool

and that is the history of common

placing before I get into this little

History Section a couple of things to

say one is I love history it's one of my

oldest and strongest autistic special

interests I will find any excuse I can

to talk about history so this probably

won't be the last time I blabber about

it on this channel

second as a trained historian I did my

bachelor's and Masters in history I get

extreme anxiety if I don't properly cite

my sources so I'll be linking the

sources I used in my research in the

description of this video

third full disclosure one of those

sources is Wikipedia

and it goes against everything I learned

at school and University about how you

should never cite Wikipedia as a source

because it's not reliable blah blah blah

but in my defense right the page on

common placing is really thorough

interesting and well backed up with

citations so I'm gonna say that it's

completely reasonable to cite it in this

case

finally a note that this history of

common placing is incomplete people have

written entire books on this and I don't

have the time or space to cover

absolutely everything without this

turning into an hours-long video so I'm

gonna cover just the broad Strokes

right let's dive in at the beginning

commonplace books have their roots in

the truly ancient past in ancient Greece

and ancient Rome where the Learned men

of the time would have books where they

compiled grammar rules idioms and

sayings just their General musings and

observations I've seen it argued that

the Roman Emperor and philosopher Marcus

Aurelius had a commonplace book and you

know if it's good enough for a Roman

Emperor it's good enough for me

so started in the ancient world then the

common placing tradition kind of

continued into the Medieval Era which is

my era that I specialized in I love it

as was the case with a lot of writing at

this time the commonplace books of the

Medieval Era had quite a theological

slant a lot of the time it was you know

the church man of the day compiling

biblical quotes and excerpts from other

approved theological Works in books that

they called floridia or collections of

flowers which I think is really lovely

actually you know we're little gardeners

pruning little flowers of knowledge

which we want to press and keep in our

notebooks for another day I do quite

like that so yeah medieval Church men

they were commonplace into their hearts

content but it was really in the early

modern period that common placing really

exploded as a practice for reference the

early modern period is basically from

around the mid 15th century to the late

18th 19th century there's not really a

set consensus among historians about

this but yeah that's the general

ballpark in this era commonplace thing

became really popular at universities

and it was actually taught at some

universities as an art which I would

have so taken a class on common pleasing

just saying and because it was taught at

universities a lot of the leading

thinkers writers and theologians of the

day had their own commonplace books some

of the most famous people of this time

who kept a commonplace book include John

Milton the author of Paradise Lost who

apparently referenced nearly a hundred

different authors in his book which is

super impressive we actually still have

his book in the British Library which is

also really cool the genius Scottish

poet Robert Burns also kept a

commonplace book and I believe it was

actually published I don't know if you

can still get it or if it's out of print

but I'm sure it was published at one

point and the philosopher John Locke

also had a commonplace book and he was

really deep into the practice he

actually wrote either a book or a

pamphlet about his personal common

placing technique and like the index

system he used which I think is really

cool and this was the time that people

really started taking common placing

seriously for the practice and you know

they had indexing systems they cared

about this stuff and side note I bet

John Locke would have made a YouTube

commonplace book tour were he alive

today or at least I liked I think he

would because that's a hilarious mental

image all that aside at this time people

really started collecting huge amounts

of information and really varied types

of material in these books quotes songs

prayers maths problems book summaries

you name it they copied it down they

really went for it at this stage and I

for one admire them for it because they

really created the practice of common

placing as we know it today

so going forward into the modern era

there were fewer cases of famous common

places I guess because you know quite a

lot of big Global stuff happened in the

19th and 20th centuries it's possible

that people just cuddle the things on

their minds at this time that's not to

say it disappeared as a practice some

people did keep it up including writers

like Virginia Woolf I think people tend

to refer to her notebooks as her Diaries

or journals but they do incorporate some

common placing elements like she wrote a

lot about the books that she read

bizarrely though another 20th century

commonplace it was U.S president Ronald

Reagan that was an unexpected name that

came up while I was researching this but

fair play to him for that

so yeah common placing continued but

maybe a lower profile and then we

reached the 21st century and I would

argue that common placing is again

becoming more popular as a practice I

think that's probably due to the

influence of some popular creators in

you know the journaling and study tube

and online Creator communities who I'll

talk about a little bit later and it's

also as I've mentioned morphing into

this practice that people sometimes do

digitally on apps rather than in a

notebook so yeah that brings us up to

today but before I move on from this

History Section I'm gonna throw in some

random information that I just felt

compelled to share which is that there

is also a history of common placing in

fiction fictional characters have kept

commonplace books one really famous

example is Sherlock Holmes in Arthur

Conan Doyle's stories for example in the

Adventures of Sherlock Holmes there's a

quote where Watson observes then

Sherlock Holmes pulled down from the

Shelf one of the ponderous commonplace

books in which he placed his cuttings

there's also a quote in the return of

Sherlock Holmes where Holmes stretched

out his hand and took down letter s of

his commonplace book which kind of

implies that he has this entire

cataloged collection of comma place

books that he keeps in alphabetical

order which sounds like the dream it's

not just Sherlock Holmes though a more

modern example of fictional commonplace

incomes in the show Supernatural the

character John Winchester has a notebook

that I would consider a commonplace book

he kind of compiles a lot of information

he's gathered about various Supernatural

entities his experiences hunting them

and just general hunting technique full

disclosure I have not actually watched

all or even much of Supernatural because

it's just too long there are so many

seasons and every season has so many

episodes and I just don't think I could

ever catch up I know it's finished now

but I I'd like I don't know if I could

actually sit through that many hours if

TV maybe that says a lot about my

attention span but I just couldn't do it

that said I've seen enough posts on

Tumblr about supernatural that I feel

like I have a firm grasp of the main

characters and I kind of know the

general Vibe of the show and I also know

a lot about the absolute nonsense

surrounding whether destiel is Canon or

not I like to consider that it is just

saying but yeah I also know enough about

the show to know that John Winchester

has a commonplace book so there you have

it these are not the only examples of

fictional commonplace books but I'm

already at 20 minutes odd of this

recording so I'm gonna move swiftly on

we're going to talk about my personal

history of common placing segwaying

nicely from you know General history to

personal history

my common blessing began back in 2019

when I started reading for fun again

Post University it was actually a good

couple of years since I'd graduated

University at that point but I had to

read so much that I was just burned out

on the entire concept of reading for

years I was like reading bits here and

there but not systematically or

regularly by any means until as I say

2019 when I got back into it

I found myself reading a lot of quotes

and excerpts that resonated with me and

I decided to record them write them down

but I did this in a really haphazard way

I would like write stuff on scrap pieces

of paper that I would then lose because

of course I would I would maybe write

bits in my daily diary I would add

things to the notes up on my phone yeah

everything was just in different places

and it got annoying and frustrating

because I could never actually find the

information that I had saved and I feel

like you know if you're saving it for a

reason you want to be able to access it

again in the future so I started looking

online

for kind of information storage systems

and I came across a video by Robin

Walden called how to keep a commonplace

book I will link that specific video in

the description with the caveat that

this is an older video of his and he's

actually done updated videos about his

commonplace book at the years since so

you might want to watch those more

recent ones anyway Robin explained the

practice of comma blazing super simply

in that video and I was hooked he also

talked about how he used the app

Evernote for his common placing at that

time and that really intrigued me

because at that time I was trying to be

a bit more minimalist about how many

physical possessions I had I wanted to

switch to being digital for at least

some of my writing so following in

Robin's footsteps I started a

commonplace book on Evernote now what I

learned after a few months of using

Evernote is that while I really loved

the concept of collecting information in

one place I didn't like doing it on the

app I really just like the practice of

writing things out by hand as it turns

out and that is no criticism of Evernote

it worked really well for what I wanted

it to do it just turns out that I'm a

physical writer as I mentioned earlier I

find the act of writing really soothing

so I felt I was missing out on that by

keeping things digital so in I think

around early 2020 sometime I switched to

a physical commonplace book this was

just a simple lined notebook No Frills

and no decoration inside either it

literally was just me writing out

information that resonated with me and

again for the most part this was great

it scratched my itch of wanting to write

things out by hand and I found it more

convenient to have a physical notebook

in some ways because I actively try not

to spend too much time on technology she

says while uploading a YouTube video

anyway yeah having a physical book

instead of something phone based like an

app was great for me in that sense and

yeah I used this lined notebook system

for a good chunk of time but I found

this approach to commonplace in just a

little bit dull I was kind of craving

the feeling of mixing functionality with

aesthetically pleasing Pages basically I

wanted to decorate that that's that's it

that's what I'm trying to say here I

just wanted to decorate things and that

meant that around late 2020 early 2021

time I was mauling over trying to find a

new system that could incorporate some

decorative elements in it however

unfortunately I got quite unwell in 2021

mentally I mean because of pandemic

related stress and life-related stress

and I gave up comma placing entirely for

a good long while

because at that time I was just barely

functioning on a day-to-day basis so

there was absolutely no hope of me

keeping up any kind of common policing

practice like it just wasn't going to

happen so I set my notebooks aside and I

really focused my energy on just healing

and getting better from the anxiety that

had made my life a nightmare at that

time I'm happy to say that I did indeed

heal and got much much better and by

late 2021 I was again getting the itch

to start common placing and reading

again around that time I came across one

of Ali abdall's videos about the app

notion which many people use as like a

digital planning and note taking

repository one of the big draws of

notion is that it's super customizable

and you can make it really aesthetically

pleasing by adding in images and icons

and different fonts and colors and yeah

that really sparked something in me I

know I said previously that I realized

that I was a physical commonplaceer like

I like writing by hand and that was

still true but at the time I was doing a

lot of writing by hand in my long form

journal and I felt that that kind of

fulfilled that itch for me and I was

willing to give digital common pleasing

a try again so I did but

this is becoming a common theme

something still didn't feel quite right

for me with that system one thing that

kind of annoyed me about it is that it's

really difficult or at least at the time

it was really difficult to get notion to

work well offline it was very much an

online app and that was inconvenient if

I was not anywhere where I had access to

the internet or if I didn't want to use

my mobile data when I was out you know

it was just a bit annoying having to

consider like oh I've got to be

connected to the Wi-Fi to be able to do

this and on top of that I was going

through another phase at that time of

trying to get even less screen time this

has just been a constant thing for me

trying to minimize screen time as much

as possible over the years because I

find that it helps my sleep I know they

say not to use a screen just before bed

but I find even if I use screens a lot

in the hours before bed I struggled to

sleep so yeah I was I was becoming a bit

uncomfortable with the idea that my

commonplace book was on a phone or on a

company computer because I wanted to use

those things less what finally pushed me

to abandon notion and go back to

handwritten common placing in a notebook

was YouTube randomly recommending me one

of Megan rhiannon's videos in late 2022

it was one in which she featured her

commonplace book pretty heavily again

her channel will be linked in the

description because it's amazing but

yeah I was just immediately hooked by

the style of commonplaceing that Megan

has designed kind of a mix of

handwritten notes and aesthetically

pleasing images stickers Doodles it

basically just combined everything I was

looking for function decoration and an

analog system

so I bought myself an A5 dot grid

notebook and decided to start a mixed

functional and decorative system and I

fell in love I've been using my own

version of Megan's system ever since

it's a little streamlined compared to

what Megan does for one I don't

personally use any categorization system

in my commonplace book Megan quite

famously uses a colored dot

categorization system like dot stickers

of different colors for different topics

but I didn't get along with that when I

tried it I think because I could never

remember what topic each color

corresponded to so it didn't actually

help me to have it there I just get

annoyed with myself that I couldn't

remember so I stopped doing that and I

also don't use margins in my books which

Megan does I just use the full space of

the page so yeah that's my common

placing Journey so far to be honest I

can't see my system changing anytime

soon from what it currently is I really

love it and I can't find any flaws in it

or any things that I find a bit annoying

like it I think it is just perfect for

me but never say never I guess I thought

all the other systems I tried would be

perfect for me and yet here we are I'm

gonna close up this video by talking a

bit about what I've been doing in the

video clip I've been common placing as I

mentioned but yeah let's get a bit more

specific than that I guess in this

particular clip I was adding some quotes

and Tumblr posts to my commonplace book

which is something I do pretty regularly

I really like to collect and keep quotes

and posts that fit a few themes one is

things that inspire me or reassure me

particularly when I'm going through a

rough patch it's nice to have things to

flick back and look at that are gonna

make me feel a bit better and inspire me

to keep going I also have quotes that

exactly describe something that I've

experienced or I'm going through because

sometimes it's nice to just feel seen in

that way there are some quotes in here

that call me out for something that I

either need to do or need to stop doing

I guess I'll class these as like tough

love quotes and finally sometimes I copy

stuff out just because it makes me laugh

either because it's intended to be funny

or because it's so absurd that it is

unintentionally funny in terms of

decoration on these pages I always do a

bit of decoration on every page whether

that's stickers or printed out photos or

washi tape sometimes that decoration is

related to what I'm writing about but a

lot of the time it's not it's just

whatever decoration style I'm vibing

with in that moment so for example in

this particular set of pages it's a bit

of both actually the planner stickers on

the left hand page from stick with Kate

are relevant to the general idea of

common placing I'm writing in notebooks

but on the right hand page it's just

cozy Autumn stickers from Batista shop

on Etsy and those are more just because

I'm enjoying the fact it's Autumn They

Don't Really relate to what I'm writing

about

all right that is it I've been talking

for a long while now my throat is

starting to hurt a bit so I think it's

time to bring this video to a close I

really hope you've all enjoyed it if

you're a common pleasing veteran I'd

love to hear how you got into it and

what your personal system is

also if you enjoyed this video please

consider subscribing because it helps me

out a lot and yeah thank you all for

making it to the end