Will you post a link when it is live, Ruby? I’m new to Skillshare! I signed up for your class. I keep a book of quotations and a book of words to learn… common placing sounds like a better way to organize going forward.
Yes, please do share a link. Looking forward to it Ruby! I signed up. I just love when you add content like this, where you share your tips on how you learn, stay organized, plan, etc. So lovely how you think and work. 🙂
Worked out that this is why my dad has like 7 notebooks everywhere all the time. I read one of them thinking it was a diary and he’d written a date and a quote from me when I told him a fun fact and it was so wholesome 😭🥰 I have always admired how my dad is so curious and strive to be like that in my life, I refuse to let adulthood kick it out of me!!
Why’d this almost make my cry? As a young father who also does this, I dream of my daughter and son opening one of my notebooks one day to a quote by them, or a passage about how much they mean to me
Also I think most people don’t know what a commonplace book is, but still keep one, nonetheless. That’s how I was, but finding out about the literal practice of it has allowed me to be more concise in the practice. Maybe you could show him a vid?
I've been doing this for ages. i didn't know it was called common place books. as an aspiring writer and book lover common place books have helped me, it's like pinterest, only analog. thanks for making these kinds of videos. your excitement is contagious.
As a writer myself I agree. I've been doing this forever. I also have separate books for quotes, book ideas etc. After my commonplace book is full I go through it and transfer the things I still love to the other books to keep in my reference section.
"When I stress the importance of memorisation, it's not about rote memorisation or reciting something for the sake of reciting it. But rather, if you know it then you can apply it, and you can talk about it, and that's the value of memorisation" I'm constantly trying to express this to my students and yo express it so eloquently! This quote is going straight into my commonplace book 😃
this is so true… my mum only had limited education and yet when i was growing up, she would recite chinese proverbs or sayings whenever i needed ‘education’. hence i never felt she was telling me off … only that she was passing on some words of wisdom that she had gleaned ❤️
I've been doing this for a while but had no idea this was a thing. It all started with having multiple notebooks for certain topics only but I'd only fill in a few pages for each notebook. So I got tired of wasting notebooks and decided to just write my notes of varying topics into one book. I liked how my notebook became a personal reflection of me, showcasing my various interests, research, and bits of knowledge I've collected here and there.
@@lenaj8379I watch Ruby's channel mainly for the asmr quality of her uploads, I love the way she speaks. If memory serves she did do an asmr video a few years back.
my commonplace book is literally a messy piece of madness with endless notes, quotes, ideas, writing and it's all just thrown into the notebook.I use it as a brain dump to help my head to let go and have this infinite source of info and inspiration. after watching your method, I am considering starting a new one for academic purposes (eng lit major) and try properly organising it! thanks a lot for the video, it's super useful, I hope more people would open a beauty of commonplacing!
When I was in Germany I asked a local how to pronounce it and her daughter corrected her ! They could not agree on the pronunciation . I just thought …well , I’ll never get it !
@@NYLeafy.VAustrian here! and i think that's the magic of speaking haha. Even locals can't agree on a right pronunciation sometimes. beautiful i think, how language is so ever changing and individual
this sounds so fun?? i feel like this is exactly whats been missing in my life, i would just screenshot random interesting things and then never find them again in my gallery 😢 i need to start this!
Yes this is certainly what I have been doing for years, I hope to go through my gallery soon and sort them out at least into an Album maybe called Commonplace Book
@@brandyannhunter2099It sounds a lot like a blog, this could perfectly be made on Tumblr, which allows you to categorize however you want by using tags.
I used your method of keeping a small commonplace book for the essay you're writing, and it worked wonderfully. I actually got the highest mark that I've ever gotten for an essay before!
This is lovely news! CONGRATULATIONS on doing so well with your essay. It sounds like commonplacing is a really helpful practice for you. I’m going to start a commonplace book. 📚 x
I'm 65 and have found your videos have reconnected me with much of who I was when I was younger! I'm not yet retired, so this is definitely helping me balance my ongoing self-guided study and my day job! At any rate, you might be interested in reading The Notebook: A History of Thinking on Paper by Roland Allen. Great history of people's use of personal notebooks. Thanks!
I've always loved notebooks for keeping lists of things, writing down quotes, taking notes on different subjects, Bible verses I liked, jokes I heard, all sorts of things! I started decorating and covering my composition books and somehow clicked on a video while researching that and found commonplacing. I am so excited about this. I've evidently been a common placer all my life and didn't even know it.
A friend of mine recently started a commonplace book, and recently I've been trying to at least somewhat annotate the non-fiction I've been reading, something I've never really liked doing before! Watching this video I think has finally convinced me to try my hand again at commonplacing :) Your explanation of how you organize your commonplace books is so clear and do-able, which is encouraging to me!
You explained commonplace books better than any other video I've ever seen and now I fully understand the dynamic of commonplacing and how to start a book but keep it organized. Thank you so much!
"... it helps you draw connections between things" Love this - that's the missing link for me. Thank you, I will start indexing and am excited to see the ideas and insights that flow from that simple practice.
My uncle has about 15 commonplace books he's made over the years. I flicked through one once and you could see the amount of dedication he had to collating information. Time, dates, everything. All the necessary information he'd ever need all jotted down. He was using it to catalogue porn videos and porn stars but still, it was nice to see.
When I tried bullet journaling a few years ago, I found myself using it for both planner functions and the sort of things you talk about in this commonplace book video. Once the year was almost over, I realized that over half of my bujo was full of stuff I would actually like to keep around for reference, but it was mixed in with a hundred pages of single use grocery lists and past events that I no longer needed to look at ever again. 😢 That's when I sort of figured out that I needed to keep my planning and my long-term notes in separate volumes. Glad to finally have a name for my personal reference notebook!
You can still write those things in your bullet journal, but once a journal is complete, you can go through and collect everything you want to keep long-term in a different, long-term notebook. That way you can sort through it again and choose what's really worth keeping.
As someone with dozens of notebooks, I feel as though I have been commonplacing my whole life. Thank you for this video, Ruby! It really makes me want to commonplace more intentionally.
I'm not entirely sure how this video popped up in my suggested videos, but I'm sure glad it did. I have always started notebooks for various different topics but never finished them. This inspired me to pull out an old notebook and just compile everything in it! I've started transferring my saved quotes from my screenshots and notes app into it. Much nicer to have a physical version to flip through than scrolling on a phone! Thank you for sharing about this :)
I’ve been binging commonplace book videos and trying to chart out the best way to finally start one for myself, I think this may be my sign to just go for it and let it evolve into whatever it wants to be 😊
I didn't know if I can call this commonplace book, but recently i started to write information from novels i read, in order to not forgot the stories since it was a book series. And when I saw this video, i felt amazing!! Thanks ruby, i feel like i have to continue this note taking things. Consistency is hard but I'll try ❤
this is the first time i heard of common place books and i find myself comparing it to a book of shadows or a grimoir by practitioners of the witchcraft community, just collecting and writing stuff down that interests you at the moment, collecting thoughts, information and experiences over the time :) i like it! i also thought of my old school college blocks which were full of random information i collected through the school year, not just school related. thank you for the video
Thank you for such a thorough explanation. I am a mom and homemaker now for almost 30 years. My commonplace book is full of quotes and passages on motherhood and homemaking. I hope it is a keepsake for one of my children someday. ❤
What a brilliant idea. A way to organise what you want to keep when you don't know what that will be yet. And so incredibly simple - number the pages and leave room for an index at the front. Then, it doesn't matter that one subject is scattered across multiple pages throughout the book. Thank you.
I have been common placing my whole life with out knowing it! Thanks Ruby ,for your video and your inspirational ideas .By the way , it really helps organizing your thoughts and your life in general and helps you not to forget things.
It's so funny when you find language for something you've always done - that's so cool to hear! I'd love to hear about what kinds of things you like to commonplace :)x
this is the first video that actually convinced me I need a commonplace book (instead of just the all-in-one journal) and how fun it can be. thank you!!
I've watched this video 3 times now and I am so fascinated by this concept, that I now started my own commonplace book. I am that type of person, that writes down a lot of tiny snippets in my phone, but than barely revisits them because they just dissappear into the void, I think a notebook will be a much better home for them. I already filled one page and I love the concept. I can't wait to really get into it.
Thank you🙏🏽 Your video among all the others was the one that made sense to me. I now have a small “general information” commonplace book with the index you use (because that one was simple and approachable). I ordered a binder for a topic specific commonplace book for my research for the MFA I plan to start in the fall and now I feel all organized and confident I can follow my system!
I've watched this video many times before but it was recommended again to me just at the start of the new year. So I found a small, blank journal in my house and wrote my first two entries. So excited to continue this! And your version of indexing is so practical!
I started one when I had my son, he’s now 23. It’s got such random information that I often refer to from time to time. Great to look back on as well. It’s full of advice from my baby shower, my bucket list, lots of lists, how to draw things, jokes and things my son said when he was little.
I have seen so many videos about commonplacing and this is the only one that's actually explained it in such a way that I am now convinced I need to incorporate it into my life! Thank you, Ruby!
Ruby, you are literally such a gem. I’ve been watching you for years and the things you talk about & the way you describe them so in depth… has continued to inspire me to seek out those rooted thoughts from my own brain! Always thought I was a little “too particular” in my journaling practices but through your videos, I’ve learned, that well… I am among the greats - as they once journaled with such precision, too :)) appreciate u xoxoxo 🫶🫶🔑🕯️🥲
Oh this is such a lovely comment... you have me sat here smiling. Thank you for such generous words, and you can never be "too particular", I don't think ;)
Anne Lister is a great example of this. If anyone is interested. She literally kept a notebook with her at all times and one of the things she did in it was record all of the barometer readings each year. Her notebooks are fascinating.
I admire you so much for your intelligence, curiosity and wisdom and I strive to be more like you. The internet and my phone have kind of killed the side of me that loved reading as a kid and I want to get back to it - the way you are so passionate and excited about literally everything to do with books and writing and history and all those things really inspires me. Thank you!
Omg!!!!I was literally hopping Ruby would make a video about commonplacing , because I wanted to start a commonplace book, and an hour later, here it is!!!!❤❤❤ By the way love your videos so much 💞💞💞
We have a collection of Common Place books at my work (I work with Special Collections) from the 18th and 19th centuries. They became very popular with women later on - they are created by a variety of middle class women of the time and they are full of artwork, quotations and musings. I love them!
Thanks for making this video. I'm always losing track of what I've journaled in the past, but this feels like a good way to approach more intentional and useful journalling.
i love your channel, it's like you came out right of a dark academia book, just period vibes all over. Will start common placing so I'm taking notes right now from you.
what a fantastic idea 💡 i seldom remember much of things that i read … i get a buzz when i learn something new but have not practiced making notes (except in lectures years ago). many thanks for sharing your enthusiasm!
I never realized it, but I've been common-placing for some time now! I would always take pictures of quotes or screenshot images I find interesting but I never got to putting them together because I felt overwhelmed by all the content and didn't know where to start and how to sort it all. Thank you for your video Ruby, it really helped and motivated me ❤
This is so lovely to read! I definitely agree it can be overwhelming - especially when you fall behind with adding to your book - but I hope you fall into it this autumn!
My husband kept a CP book for many, many years. My version was always a mess of scraps of paper I’d lose and of course forget about. Thanks for stirring me to begin again in an organized way. New subscriber and will be looking at your skillshare course. Thanks again! 🦋
I've been doing commonplacing for years. Currently trying to digitalize the bulk of things since I wanted to keep my commonplace book on me all the time while still maintaining one in paper and it's honestly the best thing I've done over the years. Thanks for the video and I'd love to see more on this topic!
How are you approaching the digitization process? I want to do the same because I know I won’t ever go back and look through old books. So I want to digitize, but it is not a natural process to pick up an iPad and type.
I use the colorcode method for categories vs an index. Looking for a color as i flip through is much easier for me to process than trying to read and parse a title in an index.
I've been keeping commonplace books since around 2004! they're so useful and then also fun as an archival object to look back on my life (in addition to my journals).
I’ve been keeping a common place book for a couple of years now without realising it! I’m delighted to discover through your video, that this is a thing! I will definitely implement an indexing system when I start my next one. Thank you for a great video.
I just finish the skillshare common place class and its amazing! 😊 It feels like an old friend is telling you a lot interesting and useful things, the one that served me a lot was the method of "ask 5 times" :)
Literally just started my 1st common place book a couple of weeks ago, after hearing you mention it in several videos😊 Didn't realise how much I needed to do this. Thank you for this video it's given me a much clearer idea of how I want my book to be structured ❤
Your instagram post comparing the screen capture and cataloguing habit to the paper version brought me here. Now I know what to do with the notebook I got for my birthday. Thank you for this very clear and interesting video, it's just what I needed to start mine.
It’s sort of like journalling for me. Have always done it, but thank you for the video. For me it was useful to hear how to do the Index, as I always end up with post it notes everywhere and book marks so I can find relevant sections.
I have been watching you for years now and i literally can't tell u how much u inspire me each time to try something new and make me motivated....your study vlogs and study with mes always helped me and i just wanted to say that keep posting...✨
You are correct - I have been doing this on my notes app on my iPhone since I was in high school. I don't think I could switch to a physical notebook, though, as cute as I find the idea, because my typing speed is far closer to my thinking speed than my writing speed could ever be and digitizing gives me the power of infinite editing! Anyways, nice to have a name for it!
This video is such a gift ... Thank you so much!! I was planning to start my commonplace book today ... I just wanted to write to say how calming, helpful, and enheartening your videos are. I hope that you are doing well, and know that you are truly making a difference - one of lightness. Again, thank you so much! From all of us. Sending the best wishes, and much warmth.
This is such an awaited video and I was so happy to watch it. Your enthusiasm and love for everything you do shines through in every video but especially this one. And that really makes it a joy to watch
I kept one of these in high school and college. I have ADHD, and it serves as a backup memory for me. Every time I told someone what it was, they looked at me like I was either crazy, or a genius.
I enjoy journaling but I have never heard of commomplacing before until now! I have a small Robin notebook that I wasn’t entirely sure what to do with it but now I think I’ll use it for commonplacing! I enjoy learning new things but sometimes I forget them, so writing them down in a book is perfect! Thank you for the video Ruby!
i am about to start my undergraduate English degree at Cambridge so i will definitely start doing this, i have a journal where i put everything including diary entries, and quotes and to do lists etc so i think i will start a commonplace! to organise this!
I've been doing this for years, but didn't realise it was commonplacing! Definitely going to add the index to my notebooks - it would really help to sort out which topics are where 😊
I saw a TikTok where you shared a commonplace entry and have been waiting for this video!! I’ve been commonplacing more actively recently, so it’s nice to see how others approach it :)
I'm just getting into starting my own common place book and I found that it makes you also more actively watching youtube videos, because I wanted to start my common place book with definitions, reasons and so on about common place books :D I got much more informations out of the videos when I'm thinking about what can I transfer into my book? Thanks for your video and sharing your thoughts and methods. I will definitely check out your skillshare class.
I've been literally waiting for this video for soo long And am sooo glad its finally here Am so excited to start my own commonplace book , thankyou ruby , lots of love from India❤
Thank you Ruby! From hearing you talk about commonplace books in your vlogs I realised I’ve kind of being keeping a version of that in my google notes on my phone. But I want to try and transfer it into a physical format and your video was very insightful in getting a fuller understanding of the uses and meaning behind it (I already had a Skillshare account and have added your course to my favourites 😉). Love your vlogs!
This is such a great idea! I wish I’d known about it because there’s been so many times I read something that I wanted to remember! I do have a thousand tabs open but this would be much more efficient and would also withstand the sands of time a bit more as well!
I have notebooks for everything but your method with an index and having everything in one place sounds so fun. I'm going to look for a small notebook and start doing this!
Thank you Ruby. This video has been so helpful to me, and how you explained commonplacing is excellent. You connected the dots for me. Best wishes to you in all your endeavors.
being recommended your video such a serendipitous discovery! Inspired by the Quagmires from A Series of Unfortunate events, since primary school I had been keeping my own version of a common place book (later evolved into what my current reading journal, personal journal, and notes app are) just yesterday I was going through my old stuff and found these books!!! Now after watching your video I'm so inspired to now properly start a Common place book and compile my screenshot folder and mess of a notes app. As someone who likes to keep things organised, i love the idea of having information I've been exposed to all in one place and can easily bring around with me to reread/reference
I love this. I love seeing that this idea probably came about from the Middle Ages. That tie to the past is somehow comforting to know that human continuity is a thing. Thanks for the video.
Omg I just stumbled across the term commonplace book in one of your shorts and was wondering if you would do a separate video on it and now I see you actually did 😍😍😍
Yes, I had been doing it without knowing the name of it or anything else😆. I have three small common places. And now I got a small notebook, smaller than my phone to carry around and use it as substitute of phone too. Love the idea of carrying it everywhere
You ended up in my feed yesterday and I am happy i found you. I have notebooks everywhere with odd bits of information. Why have i just heard about commonplacing? I have just now finished making a few commonplace inserts for my small wallet notebook. I have my daily tracking/to-do insert, a five yr journal insert and now a commonplace insert.
Lol my favourite author kept a commonplace book, so I have also had one since 2018. They really are neat tools. I remember a lot of their contents by heart now! Great video ❤
I'm happy to have found this video, thankyou! My commonplace book is my own little book of chaotic thinking where anything that interests me such as facts, history, quotes, recipes....anything geta wrote down. I don't have an index or a key though which makes is chaotic but having said that I knkw roughly where in the book I wrote a recipe for chicken and ham pie 😅 I have also let go of perfection recently and I like how on some pages my handwriting is neat but then it looks like a drunk spider has fallen out of an inkwell on the page and scuttled around xxxx
My skillshare class goes live on Monday by the way, for people who are a little confused! 📖
Will you post a link when it is live, Ruby? I’m new to Skillshare! I signed up for your class. I keep a book of quotations and a book of words to learn… common placing sounds like a better way to organize going forward.
I was wondering because I followed your link and couldn't find it.
Yes, please do share a link. Looking forward to it Ruby! I signed up. I just love when you add content like this, where you share your tips on how you learn, stay organized, plan, etc. So lovely how you think and work. 🙂
Yes a link please!
Would love a link!
Worked out that this is why my dad has like 7 notebooks everywhere all the time. I read one of them thinking it was a diary and he’d written a date and a quote from me when I told him a fun fact and it was so wholesome 😭🥰 I have always admired how my dad is so curious and strive to be like that in my life, I refuse to let adulthood kick it out of me!!
Wait that's so lovely oh my goodness! Your dad sounds like someone to learn from x
@@RubyGranger8literally just asked him if he knew what a commonplace book is and he had no idea 😂
@@justanotherpiccplayer3511Well, I hope he wrote down what a commonplace book is in one of his commonplace books. 😊
Why’d this almost make my cry? As a young father who also does this, I dream of my daughter and son opening one of my notebooks one day to a quote by them, or a passage about how much they mean to me
Also I think most people don’t know what a commonplace book is, but still keep one, nonetheless. That’s how I was, but finding out about the literal practice of it has allowed me to be more concise in the practice. Maybe you could show him a vid?
I've been doing this for ages. i didn't know it was called common place books. as an aspiring writer and book lover common place books have helped me, it's like pinterest, only analog. thanks for making these kinds of videos. your excitement is contagious.
I ADORE that comparison! Analogue Pinterest! What a wonderful way of putting it!
As a writer myself I agree. I've been doing this forever. I also have separate books for quotes, book ideas etc. After my commonplace book is full I go through it and transfer the things I still love to the other books to keep in my reference section.
"When I stress the importance of memorisation, it's not about rote memorisation or reciting something for the sake of reciting it. But rather, if you know it then you can apply it, and you can talk about it, and that's the value of memorisation" I'm constantly trying to express this to my students and yo express it so eloquently! This quote is going straight into my commonplace book 😃
this is so true… my mum only had limited education and yet when i was growing up, she would recite chinese proverbs or sayings whenever i needed ‘education’. hence i never felt she was telling me off … only that she was passing on some words of wisdom that she had gleaned ❤️
As you memorize a passage, you break it down and meditate on its meaning. You slow down and absorb.
I've been doing this for a while but had no idea this was a thing. It all started with having multiple notebooks for certain topics only but I'd only fill in a few pages for each notebook. So I got tired of wasting notebooks and decided to just write my notes of varying topics into one book. I liked how my notebook became a personal reflection of me, showcasing my various interests, research, and bits of knowledge I've collected here and there.
Lol, same. I’ve just started going down the journaling rabbit hole and it’s crazy that this is just something I’ve always done in general lol
HER TONE IS JUST SO...calming?
there is beauty in it...
@@LANCSKIDdon't watch then it's simple
yeah I imagine her being a super good Asmrtist hehe... :) So Ruby if you ever need anoooother side hustle :D
@@lenaj8379I watch Ruby's channel mainly for the asmr quality of her uploads, I love the way she speaks.
If memory serves she did do an asmr video a few years back.
@@LANCSKID why are you being such a hater man this isn't instagram reels
my commonplace book is literally a messy piece of madness with endless notes, quotes, ideas, writing and it's all just thrown into the notebook.I use it as a brain dump to help my head to let go and have this infinite source of info and inspiration. after watching your method, I am considering starting a new one for academic purposes (eng lit major) and try properly organising it! thanks a lot for the video, it's super useful, I hope more people would open a beauty of commonplacing!
As a german I love hearing english people say "Leuchtturm". It's always so wrong but brightens my day.
And it happens so often when you watch study or sketchbook vids as well :D
She got the first vowel right though, right?
When I was in Germany I asked a local how to pronounce it and her daughter corrected her ! They could not agree on the pronunciation . I just thought …well , I’ll never get it !
@@NYLeafy.VAustrian here! and i think that's the magic of speaking haha. Even locals can't agree on a right pronunciation sometimes. beautiful i think, how language is so ever changing and individual
Loishturm? 😊
this sounds so fun?? i feel like this is exactly whats been missing in my life, i would just screenshot random interesting things and then never find them again in my gallery 😢 i need to start this!
Same I'd just screenshot them, then i came across this vid and thought to write those screenshots in a common place book😂
Yes this is certainly what I have been doing for years, I hope to go through my gallery soon and sort them out at least into an Album maybe called Commonplace Book
I wonder how I could digitalize a commonplace book. Maybe google files?
@@brandyannhunter2099It sounds a lot like a blog, this could perfectly be made on Tumblr, which allows you to categorize however you want by using tags.
I used your method of keeping a small commonplace book for the essay you're writing, and it worked wonderfully. I actually got the highest mark that I've ever gotten for an essay before!
This is lovely news! CONGRATULATIONS on doing so well with your essay. It sounds like commonplacing is a really helpful practice for you.
I’m going to start a commonplace book. 📚 x
I'm 65 and have found your videos have reconnected me with much of who I was when I was younger! I'm not yet retired, so this is definitely helping me balance my ongoing self-guided study and my day job! At any rate, you might be interested in reading The Notebook: A History of Thinking on Paper by Roland Allen. Great history of people's use of personal notebooks. Thanks!
Already downloading!
I've always loved notebooks for keeping lists of things, writing down quotes, taking notes on different subjects, Bible verses I liked, jokes I heard, all sorts of things! I started decorating and covering my composition books and somehow clicked on a video while researching that and found commonplacing. I am so excited about this. I've evidently been a common placer all my life and didn't even know it.
A friend of mine recently started a commonplace book, and recently I've been trying to at least somewhat annotate the non-fiction I've been reading, something I've never really liked doing before! Watching this video I think has finally convinced me to try my hand again at commonplacing :) Your explanation of how you organize your commonplace books is so clear and do-able, which is encouraging to me!
You explained commonplace books better than any other video I've ever seen and now I fully understand the dynamic of commonplacing and how to start a book but keep it organized. Thank you so much!
"... it helps you draw connections between things" Love this - that's the missing link for me. Thank you, I will start indexing and am excited to see the ideas and insights that flow from that simple practice.
My uncle has about 15 commonplace books he's made over the years. I flicked through one once and you could see the amount of dedication he had to collating information. Time, dates, everything. All the necessary information he'd ever need all jotted down. He was using it to catalogue porn videos and porn stars but still, it was nice to see.
the last sentence was not necessary to be written
@moonlight19720 yes it was. It's good to know what other people are doing with their commonplace books.
@ it is embarrassing
@moonlight19720 he's not here so it's ok
Humans are wild lol
I love how passionate you are about this. It has obviously helped you a lot.
I actually adore it! :p x
I love that her accent is not distracting. Her delivery is damn near perfect.
When I tried bullet journaling a few years ago, I found myself using it for both planner functions and the sort of things you talk about in this commonplace book video. Once the year was almost over, I realized that over half of my bujo was full of stuff I would actually like to keep around for reference, but it was mixed in with a hundred pages of single use grocery lists and past events that I no longer needed to look at ever again. 😢 That's when I sort of figured out that I needed to keep my planning and my long-term notes in separate volumes. Glad to finally have a name for my personal reference notebook!
You can still write those things in your bullet journal, but once a journal is complete, you can go through and collect everything you want to keep long-term in a different, long-term notebook. That way you can sort through it again and choose what's really worth keeping.
As someone with dozens of notebooks, I feel as though I have been commonplacing my whole life. Thank you for this video, Ruby! It really makes me want to commonplace more intentionally.
I'm not entirely sure how this video popped up in my suggested videos, but I'm sure glad it did. I have always started notebooks for various different topics but never finished them. This inspired me to pull out an old notebook and just compile everything in it! I've started transferring my saved quotes from my screenshots and notes app into it. Much nicer to have a physical version to flip through than scrolling on a phone! Thank you for sharing about this :)
I’ve been binging commonplace book videos and trying to chart out the best way to finally start one for myself, I think this may be my sign to just go for it and let it evolve into whatever it wants to be 😊
You absolutely must! Good luck with starting one :)x
I didn't know if I can call this commonplace book, but recently i started to write information from novels i read, in order to not forgot the stories since it was a book series. And when I saw this video, i felt amazing!! Thanks ruby, i feel like i have to continue this note taking things. Consistency is hard but I'll try ❤
this is the first time i heard of common place books and i find myself comparing it to a book of shadows or a grimoir by practitioners of the witchcraft community, just collecting and writing stuff down that interests you at the moment, collecting thoughts, information and experiences over the time :) i like it! i also thought of my old school college blocks which were full of random information i collected through the school year, not just school related. thank you for the video
This is why I'm watching videos about common place books, actually. I'm trying to find ways to improve my grimoire
Yes! It it like that for sure.
I came here to say this! It’s just like a grimmoire! Which I call my bespoke textbook of life (or perhaps my own bible)
Thank you for such a thorough explanation. I am a mom and homemaker now for almost 30 years. My commonplace book is full of quotes and passages on motherhood and homemaking. I hope it is a keepsake for one of my children someday. ❤
What a brilliant idea. A way to organise what you want to keep when you don't know what that will be yet. And so incredibly simple - number the pages and leave room for an index at the front. Then, it doesn't matter that one subject is scattered across multiple pages throughout the book. Thank you.
I have been common placing my whole life with out knowing it! Thanks Ruby ,for your video and your inspirational ideas .By the way , it really helps organizing your thoughts and your life in general and helps you not to forget things.
It's so funny when you find language for something you've always done - that's so cool to hear! I'd love to hear about what kinds of things you like to commonplace :)x
this is the first video that actually convinced me I need a commonplace book (instead of just the all-in-one journal) and how fun it can be. thank you!!
I've watched this video 3 times now and I am so fascinated by this concept, that I now started my own commonplace book. I am that type of person, that writes down a lot of tiny snippets in my phone, but than barely revisits them because they just dissappear into the void, I think a notebook will be a much better home for them. I already filled one page and I love the concept. I can't wait to really get into it.
Thank you🙏🏽
Your video among all the others was the one that made sense to me. I now have a small “general information” commonplace book with the index you use (because that one was simple and approachable). I ordered a binder for a topic specific commonplace book for my research for the MFA I plan to start in the fall and now I feel all organized and confident I can follow my system!
I've watched this video many times before but it was recommended again to me just at the start of the new year. So I found a small, blank journal in my house and wrote my first two entries. So excited to continue this! And your version of indexing is so practical!
I started one when I had my son, he’s now 23. It’s got such random information that I often refer to from time to time. Great to look back on as well. It’s full of advice from my baby shower, my bucket list, lots of lists, how to draw things, jokes and things my son said when he was little.
I have done this for years but had no idea there was such a whimsical make for it …common-placing…I love it !!!
I have seen so many videos about commonplacing and this is the only one that's actually explained it in such a way that I am now convinced I need to incorporate it into my life! Thank you, Ruby!
Ruby, you are literally such a gem. I’ve been watching you for years and the things you talk about & the way you describe them so in depth… has continued to inspire me to seek out those rooted thoughts from my own brain! Always thought I was a little “too particular” in my journaling practices but through your videos, I’ve learned, that well… I am among the greats - as they once journaled with such precision, too :)) appreciate u xoxoxo 🫶🫶🔑🕯️🥲
Oh this is such a lovely comment... you have me sat here smiling. Thank you for such generous words, and you can never be "too particular", I don't think ;)
Anne Lister is a great example of this. If anyone is interested. She literally kept a notebook with her at all times and one of the things she did in it was record all of the barometer readings each year. Her notebooks are fascinating.
I admire you so much for your intelligence, curiosity and wisdom and I strive to be more like you. The internet and my phone have kind of killed the side of me that loved reading as a kid and I want to get back to it - the way you are so passionate and excited about literally everything to do with books and writing and history and all those things really inspires me. Thank you!
Omg!!!!I was literally hopping Ruby would make a video about commonplacing , because I wanted to start a commonplace book, and an hour later, here it is!!!!❤❤❤
By the way love your videos so much 💞💞💞
Such good timing!
We have a collection of Common Place books at my work (I work with Special Collections) from the 18th and 19th centuries. They became very popular with women later on - they are created by a variety of middle class women of the time and they are full of artwork, quotations and musings. I love them!
Thanks for making this video. I'm always losing track of what I've journaled in the past, but this feels like a good way to approach more intentional and useful journalling.
i love your channel, it's like you came out right of a dark academia book, just period vibes all over. Will start common placing so I'm taking notes right now from you.
what a fantastic idea 💡 i seldom remember much of things that i read … i get a buzz when i learn something new but have not practiced making notes (except in lectures years ago). many thanks for sharing your enthusiasm!
I never realized it, but I've been common-placing for some time now! I would always take pictures of quotes or screenshot images I find interesting but I never got to putting them together because I felt overwhelmed by all the content and didn't know where to start and how to sort it all. Thank you for your video Ruby, it really helped and motivated me ❤
This is so lovely to read! I definitely agree it can be overwhelming - especially when you fall behind with adding to your book - but I hope you fall into it this autumn!
My husband kept a CP book for many, many years. My version was always a mess of scraps of paper I’d lose and of course forget about. Thanks for stirring me to begin again in an organized way. New subscriber and will be looking at your skillshare course. Thanks again! 🦋
i was totally convinced by you, now my main journal is a common place book and since i've started i've been writing so much more
I've been doing commonplacing for years. Currently trying to digitalize the bulk of things since I wanted to keep my commonplace book on me all the time while still maintaining one in paper and it's honestly the best thing I've done over the years. Thanks for the video and I'd love to see more on this topic!
How are you approaching the digitization process? I want to do the same because I know I won’t ever go back and look through old books. So I want to digitize, but it is not a natural process to pick up an iPad and type.
I use the colorcode method for categories vs an index. Looking for a color as i flip through is much easier for me to process than trying to read and parse a title in an index.
This is amazing. Im a true historic literature lover and this is perfect for me to start for next year. Thank you. ❤
its actually crazy that you make a video on this bc i have to make a commonplace book for one of my architecture classes!
I've been keeping commonplace books since around 2004! they're so useful and then also fun as an archival object to look back on my life (in addition to my journals).
I’ve been keeping a common place book for a couple of years now without realising it! I’m delighted to discover through your video, that this is a thing! I will definitely implement an indexing system when I start my next one. Thank you for a great video.
I just finish the skillshare common place class and its amazing! 😊 It feels like an old friend is telling you a lot interesting and useful things, the one that served me a lot was the method of "ask 5 times" :)
Can you tell what the ask five times method is? ❤
Already went through the class on Skillshare yesterday, it is great! Started my commonplace book last night. Thanks, Ruby!
This is fascinating. I have lived Pinterest for years- and it’s a form of common-placing ❤
Literally just started my 1st common place book a couple of weeks ago, after hearing you mention it in several videos😊 Didn't realise how much I needed to do this. Thank you for this video it's given me a much clearer idea of how I want my book to be structured ❤
Oh that's so exciting! I really hope you like keeping one!
Your instagram post comparing the screen capture and cataloguing habit to the paper version brought me here. Now I know what to do with the notebook I got for my birthday. Thank you for this very clear and interesting video, it's just what I needed to start mine.
It’s sort of like journalling for me. Have always done it, but thank you for the video. For me it was useful to hear how to do the Index, as I always end up with post it notes everywhere and book marks so I can find relevant sections.
I have been watching you for years now and i literally can't tell u how much u inspire me each time to try something new and make me motivated....your study vlogs and study with mes always helped me and i just wanted to say that keep posting...✨
I’ve been doing this since the 80’s and it’s one of the easiest, effective, enjoyable way to keep a journal/notebook! 😊
You are correct - I have been doing this on my notes app on my iPhone since I was in high school. I don't think I could switch to a physical notebook, though, as cute as I find the idea, because my typing speed is far closer to my thinking speed than my writing speed could ever be and digitizing gives me the power of infinite editing! Anyways, nice to have a name for it!
This video is such a gift ... Thank you so much!! I was planning to start my commonplace book today ... I just wanted to write to say how calming, helpful, and enheartening your videos are. I hope that you are doing well, and know that you are truly making a difference - one of lightness. Again, thank you so much! From all of us. Sending the best wishes, and much warmth.
This is such an awaited video and I was so happy to watch it. Your enthusiasm and love for everything you do shines through in every video but especially this one. And that really makes it a joy to watch
I kept one of these in high school and college. I have ADHD, and it serves as a backup memory for me. Every time I told someone what it was, they looked at me like I was either crazy, or a genius.
I enjoy journaling but I have never heard of commomplacing before until now! I have a small Robin notebook that I wasn’t entirely sure what to do with it but now I think I’ll use it for commonplacing! I enjoy learning new things but sometimes I forget them, so writing them down in a book is perfect! Thank you for the video Ruby!
You have such a lovely, calming voice! Ive just started keeping a commonplace book recently and really enjoyed this
I'm a fan of commonplacing and i love seeing your enthusiasm about it !!
i am about to start my undergraduate English degree at Cambridge so i will definitely start doing this, i have a journal where i put everything including diary entries, and quotes and to do lists etc so i think i will start a commonplace! to organise this!
your own encyclopedia sounds amazing
..watching from Botswana...🇧🇼🇧🇼🇧🇼 Came right on time!!..
Came right on time!!!..
U are amazing & very hardworking!!!..🥰😘♥️♥️
I definitely do the vocab thing. When I was younger I used to carry around a dictionary and high light the new words I have learned.
I had a commonplace book without knowing it was a commonplace book ! So helpful to journal and write down ideas.
I've been doing this for years, but didn't realise it was commonplacing!
Definitely going to add the index to my notebooks - it would really help to sort out which topics are where 😊
I saw a TikTok where you shared a commonplace entry and have been waiting for this video!! I’ve been commonplacing more actively recently, so it’s nice to see how others approach it :)
I'm just getting into starting my own common place book and I found that it makes you also more actively watching youtube videos, because I wanted to start my common place book with definitions, reasons and so on about common place books :D I got much more informations out of the videos when I'm thinking about what can I transfer into my book? Thanks for your video and sharing your thoughts and methods. I will definitely check out your skillshare class.
I've been literally waiting for this video for soo long
And am sooo glad its finally here
Am so excited to start my own commonplace book , thankyou ruby , lots of love from India❤
I can't wait for you to start one too :)x
Thank you Ruby! From hearing you talk about commonplace books in your vlogs I realised I’ve kind of being keeping a version of that in my google notes on my phone. But I want to try and transfer it into a physical format and your video was very insightful in getting a fuller understanding of the uses and meaning behind it (I already had a Skillshare account and have added your course to my favourites 😉). Love your vlogs!
This is such a great idea! I wish I’d known about it because there’s been so many times I read something that I wanted to remember! I do have a thousand tabs open but this would be much more efficient and would also withstand the sands of time a bit more as well!
I have notebooks for everything but your method with an index and having everything in one place sounds so fun. I'm going to look for a small notebook and start doing this!
Thank you Ruby. This video has been so helpful to me, and how you explained commonplacing is excellent. You connected the dots for me. Best wishes to you in all your endeavors.
Great video. I think I’ve been doing this already without realising. Totally agree that noting things engages you more with the text. Thanks for this.
being recommended your video such a serendipitous discovery! Inspired by the Quagmires from A Series of Unfortunate events, since primary school I had been keeping my own version of a common place book (later evolved into what my current reading journal, personal journal, and notes app are) just yesterday I was going through my old stuff and found these books!!! Now after watching your video I'm so inspired to now properly start a Common place book and compile my screenshot folder and mess of a notes app. As someone who likes to keep things organised, i love the idea of having information I've been exposed to all in one place and can easily bring around with me to reread/reference
The modern version of a commonplace book is a girls note app🙂↕️
Literally 😂 my notes app is miles long and I have categories and everything
So happy to have found your channel. This will make my note system SO much more efficient! Many thanks.
I can always rely on Ruby to teach me something completely new. Perhaps I'll finally find a use for the tiny notebooks people sometimes buy me.
Your content is always top-tier!
i had some of these notebooks done over the years but today is the first time I learn this term.
I love this. I love seeing that this idea probably came about from the Middle Ages. That tie to the past is somehow comforting to know that human continuity is a thing. Thanks for the video.
Omg I just stumbled across the term commonplace book in one of your shorts and was wondering if you would do a separate video on it and now I see you actually did 😍😍😍
My Gosh Ruby!! I m so proud of you as I see you developing each time and trying new journeys. Good job dear and good luck.
Yes, I had been doing it without knowing the name of it or anything else😆. I have three small common places. And now I got a small notebook, smaller than my phone to carry around and use it as substitute of phone too. Love the idea of carrying it everywhere
You ended up in my feed yesterday and I am happy i found you. I have notebooks everywhere with odd bits of information. Why have i just heard about commonplacing? I have just now finished making a few commonplace inserts for my small wallet notebook. I have my daily tracking/to-do insert, a five yr journal insert and now a commonplace insert.
I found this randomly and I love it! Going to start doing my own Common Place book!
Oh you must!
ive been doing this in my notes app on my phone without realizing. making a physical notebook sounds fun!
Love this❤️ I realize I’ve already been doing my own version of this and didn’t know it was actually a thing haha.
Lol my favourite author kept a commonplace book, so I have also had one since 2018. They really are neat tools. I remember a lot of their contents by heart now!
Great video ❤
I'm happy to have found this video, thankyou! My commonplace book is my own little book of chaotic thinking where anything that interests me such as facts, history, quotes, recipes....anything geta wrote down. I don't have an index or a key though which makes is chaotic but having said that I knkw roughly where in the book I wrote a recipe for chicken and ham pie 😅 I have also let go of perfection recently and I like how on some pages my handwriting is neat but then it looks like a drunk spider has fallen out of an inkwell on the page and scuttled around xxxx
This has made me realize i've been doing this, but with sooooo many lists on my phone! Using a notebook will save me a lot of phone storage
this is so interesting to me! i have been keeping a bigger version of a commonplace book for two years and i hadn't even realised.
You are amazing and so inspiring. Keep making videos about the things you are passionate about.
thank you ! as a journal writer I was lost keeping a commonplace notebook, now I know how to use it 😊