C.o · commonplace
What is a commonplace book?
A library of your interior thoughts. A blank palette for your ideas, drawings, poems, quotes, inspirations, recipes. It is whatever you want it to be because it is entirely yours.
The commonplace book is not a new idea. Marcus Aurelius kept one and it became his famous text, Meditations. Virginia Woolf kept one, so did Charles Darwin. John Locke created a commonplace book method of organization.
It is not quite a diary or a scrapbook or a journal, though it may act like those things sometimes if you choose. It is closer to a workbench: a place where the tools of the mind, learnings and memories, are set down in one place so they may easily be picked up and used in the future.
It is a place of practice. Practice self-reflection and real self-care. Practice turning off the voice of self-criticism that judges what and how you write or doodle or paint or think. Practice freedom.
the messy ones are the good ones
R.e · revolution
Why this is a revolution
Because nearly everything else you make now is made for someone else to look at.
The feed asks you to turn a life into content — cropped, captioned, timed for reach, maximized for commodification. It rewards the performance of a life over the having of one.
the point of your commonplace book is not to be seen keeping it
A commonplace book inverts every term the social media landscape demands of us. Made by hand, for one reader. It can’t be optimised. No metrics, no audience, no algorithm deciding which of your thoughts deserve to surface.
Slow on purpose. Quiet on purpose.
Things this book will never do
- notify you
- rank you
- suggest similar books
- go down for maintenance
- need charging
- show you to strangers
A.y · anything
Anything you make is worthy
A commonplace book is where a made thing can be remembered: a meal, an art piece, a walk, a season in the garden.
It is good because you made it. Documentation gives the gift of objective distance.
time has a way of shining up our creations and turning down the voice of self-criticism
a dinner party
the menu in your own hand. your guests. memories made by candlelight.
a conversation
the one sentence you keep going back to.
a cold swim
water temperature, location, meditations.
a garden
a pressed bloom too beautiful to leave behind.
N.o · nothing
There is nothing here to join.
No account, no newsletter, no membership, no app, no streak to keep. Nothing on this site is counting whether you came back. If you read this far and go and find a notebook, the site has done its entire job and you never need to return.
Share this site if you like, we are here for you. But better yet, tell a loved one in your own words about the Commonplace Revolution. Tell a stranger.
create a poster and put it up at your local community bulletin board
Find a common space and create together. See the quality of conversation that emerges through the lens of the commonplace.
your invitation to begin