Lately I’ve become interested in the idea of a Commonplace Book, which I’ve heard described as a journal of other peoples’ thoughts rather than your own—in other words, you write down quotes, ideas, and other things that inspire you as you encounter them in the world. The other main way a Commonplace Book differs from a standard journal is the material tends to be grouped by topic rather than chronologically.

I read some blogs and watched some videos about how people keep theirs, and I decided to divide my book up into themed sections and mark the sections with different colored tabs. The tabs are just because I’m really into tabs right now (so hot right now, with me). I didn’t see anybody else doing that particular thing. I did see several examples of color coding on the pages themselves, but I like the idea of being to flip directly to a section instead of having to page through.

I have it split into spiritual/religious quotes, quotes from books, and quotes I overheard. I have two sections that are not strictly “other people”: art journal bits and a misc/admin section. Keeping track of “bits” is something I’ve done for a long time—usually they are funny phrases that float into my mind that I want to retain for a possible journal piece. Misc/admin is just, like, a phone number I need to write down, the hours to a store, etc. Even in 2023 I still find it useful to have a book to jot that kind of thing down. Since the idea is to have the book with me at all times (or most of the time), I figured that stuff should go in here.

Up until now I’ve had an old memo pad (my dad used to carry these around. he left a lot behind) bouncing around in my purse for bits and misc…and even the occasional overheard quote. So it’s like a proto-Commonplace Book. You can kinda tell in the photo, that pad is permanently stained red on the sides because a lip liner pencil opened up in my purse and, well… 🙂

Anyway, I want to see if a more “formal” book will work for me, so, TBD. I like the ~idea~ of it. I do worry this particular one might be too big. I gave an arbitrary number of pages to each sections but made sure to leave plenty of empty book. If I need another section I can add it, or if I run out of space in a section I can add a second one. I hope it encourages me to pay closer attention to…everything!