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Hannah Cao's avatar

my notes app is my commonplace book (and it feels cluttered) 🫠

I adore this post!!! ✉️

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mina's avatar

i love commonplace journals as a way to also see what interested your younger self! something i wouldn't find interesting now, but my younger self wrote down. it's a snapshot into who you are.

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alexis raine's avatar

I started my commonplace journal at the beginning of this year and I have loved it! Keeping a journal where I write about my day to day always felt so tedious, but this is so different. It’s like I’m storing away all my favorite things so I can enjoy them later.

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Pau's avatar

Never had a name for what my not so journal/diary was. Thanks for sharing this ❤️

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jemia's avatar

I love a commonplace journal. I call mine my creative brain, but I like this term, too. I am trying to move away from digital journaling, but I start a lot of my thoughts on the go in my notes app and then transfer them into whatever journal (or substack post) at a later date. this year I also am documenting daily life in a planner, using it for short snapshots of what I did that day versus using it to plan out my day. I'm thoroughly enjoying it.

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Sage's avatar

reading this made me realize that i’ve been keeping commonplace books since last year, i just didn’t know it had a name 😭

i need to work on revisiting them though, that’s something i never do for some reason 🧍🏽‍♀️

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Bec Benwah's avatar

I read your newsletter in November and it just came across my home feed again this morning… just wanted to say I started a commonplace notebook after reading and it’s been my favorite thing ever! I take it with me everywhere and it really feels like such a place for pressure less expression. My next step is to get one of those cases with the bands so I can keep my common place book, my actual sketchbook, and my junk journal together!!

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Letters to the world's avatar

i never really understood what a commonplace book was, now im inspired to start one haha

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samantha nagel's avatar

my notes app has been this for me and i’m excited to start to consciously shift to doing this in a notebook instead.

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Liesha ♡'s avatar

I love that I’m just finding this as I’ve bought new journal today

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samantha nagel's avatar

same!!!!

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Kylie's avatar

I didn’t realise these sorts of journals had a name. I’ve always called them an ideas journal - an integration tool as Brene Brown calls it

I have kept these kind of journals since I was a teenager

I love them

I actually have different sorts of journals for all sorts of purposes. I write, collect, ponder or to process and discover what I’m thinking, who I am.

I’m planning to explore some more about the history before them.

I’ve actually also taken notes from your post and added to my current commonplace book 💓

Thank you

And you can NEVER have too many beautiful leather journals. They make beautiful stacks to display when filled 💓

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Rebecca's avatar

I used to have one when I was a teenager. Definitely something I should get back into! It forces us to slow down, too.

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sam | musings and matcha's avatar

love this so much!! I'm on my second commonplace notebook now. it's a great way of documenting my thoughts, ideas, things I've learned from podcasts and more!

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Gabby Llewellyn's avatar

okay I'm trying this-- so inspiring!

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Ying ☁️'s avatar

OMG this is exactly what i was going to attempt for next year! this post couldn't have had a better publishing timing

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Paris Zheng's avatar

I’m totally going to try this! 💕

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