Do you remember everything that you read? (a note-taking system)

Hey feel good fam!

Do you have a system for remembering what you read? I’ve gone through several iterations of my note-taking system but at the tail end of 2024, I switched over to the commonplace method.

Commonplace books have been around since the middle-ages and is a practice of collecting and organizing knowledge, quotes, and insights from various sources into a single notebook. The practice has been used by artists, writers, thinkers, students, and scholars as a way to remember specific concept or facts.

I think of my commonplace book as a vault of personal knowledge. In it I collect ideas and quotes that resonated with me, organized in a way that makes them easily accessible when I need inspiration or reference. I know that some people like to organize their commonplaces by topics and themes but I actually just list in the heading of each quote what the theme is.

Different people have different ways of keeping a commonplace book but here’s what works for me:

1. As I’m reading, watching, listening if there’s a quote I want to remember, I’ll jot it down in my commonplace notebook along with the source as well as the content time or page number
2. I’ll continue to do this as I go through whatever it is I’m consuming
3. In the margins I’ll start writing down themes. It could be as simple as “on creativity”, “on identity”, “on style”, etc.
4. I’ll denote a little triangle (also in the margins) for adding my own thoughts. That way I when I skim through a page I can quickly look at what the theme was and my thought on it. My thoughts usually include
   1. how this relates to me
   2. why I write it down
   3. feelings and emotions it triggered
   4. a quick summary in my own words
5. To index that note, I’ll flip to the back of my notebook and look at the topics I’ve saved. If it fits into one of the topics, I’ll jot the page number down next to it. If it doesn’t, I’ll think about whether it’s a new topic I should add or whether there’s a bigger, overarching theme that would make more sense. If there is, I’ll create a new section in the index for it.
6. When I’m writing a newsletter, creating a video, or journaling about something and I want to pull a quote or have some supporting thoughts, I’ll flip through my index to see if there’s anything that relates
7. Sometimes I’ll even just flip through my commonplace book for inspiration. Reading the quotes, notes, and thoughts I’ve saved can trigger a new idea for creation

If you have been struggling with remember the books, articles, and other texts that you read—give the commonplace book a try!

Two more things

A brand of notebooks I’ve been loving. I’m usually a Leuchtturm girl, but I do love that ​this brand of notebooks​ lets you customize the cover to add your name. The paper quality is amazing as well.

An app that turns any body of text into audio format. I’ve been a subscriber of ​this app​ for just under a year and I’ve really been enjoying it so far. I used to use Audible but I like that I can upload anything to Speechify (be it an e-book, article, or any other text file) and it’ll read it to me. Plus you can choose Snoop Dogg’s voice as the narrator and that’s pretty fun.

This week

This week on the pod, we talk all about creating more balance in our lives. I’ve been putting a lot of focus on work-life balance this year because I’m sick of burning out and getting sick because of the stress I put on myself. If you haven’t heard it yet, give it a listen!

That’s all for this week! I’ll see you next Sunday!