Reading
Commonplace book
A commonplace book is a notebook where you save lines, facts and ideas you want to keep from your reading. You sort them under headings, so you can find them again. To start, take any notebook, copy one thing worth keeping, and write its topic above it.
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Reviewed by Mohammed Raqeeb
What it is
What is a commonplace book?
A commonplace book is a notebook where you save the things you want to keep from what you read and hear. A line from a book. A useful fact. An idea you liked. You copy each one down and put it under a heading. A heading is the name of a topic, like Money, Sleep or Courage.
Why keep one? So that a good line or a useful fact does not get lost when you close the book. When you want it again, you look under its heading. It is there, next to everything else you saved on that topic.
You can keep one on paper or on your phone. Four things make a notebook a commonplace book.
One
You choose what goes in
Every note is something you decided to keep. Nothing goes in without you picking it.
Two
It is sorted by topic
Each note sits under a heading. So everything you have on one topic is in one place.
Three
It says where things came from
Each note says where you found it: the author, the book and the page.
Four
It is made to be used
You save things for a reason: to quote them, to think about them, to write from them, or to read them again.
People have kept notebooks like this for hundreds of years (Blair, 2004). The name comes from the headings: the topics that notes were sorted under were once called commonplaces. The English thinker John Locke is known for his way of making an index for one (Locke, 1706).
How to start
How do you start a commonplace book?
To start a commonplace book today, take any notebook or open a notes app. Then do these five things each time you find something worth keeping.
Mark while you read, and copy later.
If you stop to copy in the middle of a chapter, it breaks up your reading. Make a small mark next to the line and keep reading. The page on how to annotate a book shows a simple way to mark.
Copy the exact words, and write down where they came from.
Put the author’s words in quotation marks. Note the author, the title and the page. When the words are yours, write “my words” next to them.
Pick the heading by asking where you would look.
Picture yourself a year from now, trying to find this note. Which word would you look under? That word is your heading.
Add the heading to a list at the front.
Keep a list of your headings on the first pages, each with its page number. This list is your index. In a paper notebook, a note that is not in the index is very hard to find again.
Read it again.
Look through your notes when you have a free moment. A note you never read again does not help you.
Examples
What goes in a commonplace book?
A commonplace book holds four kinds of notes: a line copied word for word, a fact, an idea from your reading in your own words, and a thought of your own. Here is one example of each kind. The word on the left of each note is its heading.
A line, word for word
Writing
“The first rule of plain language is: write for your audience.”
The United States government’s guide to plain language, on Digital.gov. Copied just as it is written.
A fact, with where it came from
Memory
People who expect to find something again later remember the thing itself less well. They remember better where to find it.
Sparrow, Liu and Wegner, in the journal Science, 2011.
An idea, in your own words
Writing
Put one idea in each sentence. A long sentence can mean I am not sure what I want to say.
My words. The idea is from the same guide, in its part on short sentences.
A thought of your own
Notebooks
If I can find a note again, I do not have to keep it in my head. But do I ever read these again?
Mine, after reading this page.
Do not put everything in. Here is a simple test before you save something: would you copy it out by hand? If not, it is probably not worth pasting either.
Paper or an app
Should you keep it on paper or in an app?
Paper and an app both work for a commonplace book. Each one makes some things easier and some harder.
| What is compared | Paper notebook | App or notes file |
|---|---|---|
| Finding a note | You look in the list of headings at the front. | You search. Tags or folders do the job of headings. |
| Copying | By hand, and slowly. That keeps the book small, with only what you chose. | You paste in a second. That makes it easy to save more than you will ever read again. |
| How it goes wrong | The notebook stays in a drawer. | The pile grows and nobody reads it again. |
What a study found
Does saving a note help you remember it?
Saving a note is not the same as remembering it. In one set of experiments, people who expected to find a piece of information again later remembered it less well. They were better at remembering where to find it (Sparrow, Liu and Wegner, 2011).
So a commonplace book is good for finding things again. If you also want to remember them, read your notes again from time to time.
The test
How do you know your commonplace book is working?
The test
You added at least 3 notes a week from your own reading, and you found an old note by its heading when you wanted it
for 4 weeks in a row.
A commonplace book only grows when you read. And it is easy to think you read more than you really do.
A good way to check counts your reading hours from what you already write or say about your day. You should not have to start a timer each time you open a book. Most journaling apps save how a book made you feel. They do not show how many hours you really spent reading that week.
One app built for this is Think in Numbers, a smart journaling app with time tracking built in.
You write or say your day in your own words, as it happens or all at once. The app reads what you wrote and counts the hours that went to each part of it: your reading, work, sleep, your phone, and the time you never mentioned (shown as unaccounted). Then it shows those hours over days and weeks. You can make reading a habit with a streak and reminders, and the app ticks it off when what you write about your day shows you read. You can also set a target for reading hours and see it each week next to the hours you really read.
1. You write your day
2. It counts the hours
- Reading0m
- Work0m
- Sleep0m
- Unaccounted24h
3. It shows your week
Reading this week: 0m
On 6 of 7 days. The gap is the day without it.
An example day and week.
For iPhone and Android. Try it on your own day before you pay.
Sources
Where do the facts on this page come from?
Every finding on this page links to one of the sources below. We read each one for this page, the whole text or its summary. The first two are here for the history only.
- Blair, A. (2004). Note taking as an art of transmission. Critical Inquiry, 31(1), 85 to 107.
- Locke, J. (1706). A New Method of a Common-Place-Book. In Posthumous Works of Mr. John Locke, London (scan at the Internet Archive).
- Sparrow, B., Liu, J. and Wegner, D. M. (2011). Google effects on memory: Cognitive consequences of having information at our fingertips. Science, 333(6043), 776 to 778.
- Digital.gov, U.S. General Services Administration (read ). Plain language guide series: Principles of plain language.
- Digital.gov, U.S. General Services Administration (read ). Plain language guide series: Clear and short.
Keep reading.
- LearnAnswers about sleep, habits, study, people and work, in hours.
- How to annotate a bookFive simple marks, short notes beside the text, and a one-page summary.
- How to read a bookThree plain steps for any book, and what to do when a hard one has you stuck.
- What to write in a journalIdeas for what to write, and why the details are worth it.
- Where did my week go? calculatorEnter a typical day and see your week accounted and unaccounted.
- Time journalingThe method: write or say your day in your own words, then see it as hours.
Questions
Questions people ask.
What is a commonplace book?
A commonplace book is a notebook where you save things you want to keep: lines from books, facts and ideas. You copy each one under a heading, which is the name of its topic, so you can find it again. It is sorted by topic and not by date, and each note says where it came from.
What is the difference between a commonplace book and a journal?
A journal goes day by day. It is about your own life: what happened and how you felt. A commonplace book goes topic by topic. It holds things you found somewhere else, mostly in books, with a note of where you found them. Many people keep both.
What do you write in a commonplace book?
Four kinds of notes cover almost everything. A line copied word for word. A fact, with where you found it. An idea from your reading, in your own words. And a thought of your own. Each one gets a heading and a note of where it came from.
Why is it called a commonplace book?
The name comes from its headings. Long ago, the topics that people sorted their notes under were called commonplaces. Today the word commonplace usually means ordinary. That is a different meaning.
Try it on my day.
Write today down in your own words, and see where the hours went.
For iPhone and Android. Try it on your own day before you pay.