Try a Commonplace Book — D&C 85-87 — Life Experienced with Terri Anne Flint

If the counsel to keep a history in D&C 85:1-2 feels overwhelming or inconvenient, you might try starting a commonplace book. These book types can be traced back to antiquity, where they were used by Greek and Roman scholars to compile knowledge of philosophy and other subjects. Since then, people like Leonardo da Vinci, Mark Twain, and Thomas Jefferson have used them to store observations, experiences, drawings, and subjects to explore. Unlike a journal that contains only the writer’s thoughts, commonplace books can hold ideas from any source.

Writing a commonplace book can be a means of slowing down and noticing more deeply what you’re observing in life. It could also be an alternative to mindless scrolling. A commonplace book can become a personal encyclopedia filled with quotes or poems that inspire you, anecdotes that nurture you, observations and facts that intrigue you.

There are no rules when it comes to writing a commonplace book. Find a notebook you love and is convenient to carry, and then begin writing whatever you want. Excerpts from books, articles or speeches, sketches, lists, places to eat or travel are just a few ideas of what can be included. Organize it by topic or theme, or just let it be freeform. Let it be a place to document your “manner of life”, your faith and works. Rather than see it as a chore or duty to write, see it as a record of growth, curiosity, and beauty. Let it become a private source of pleasure, solace, and discoveries as you revisit it often.

“Commonplace books are a beautiful and simple way to slow down and take in the information that fascinates us in an intentional way.” –Brianna Schubert

“Nothing can contribute more to obviate the inconvenience and difficulties attending a vacant or wandering mind, than the arrangement and regular disposal of our thoughts in a well-ordered and copious common-place book….” –John Bell’s Common-Place Book, Form’d generally upon the Principles Recommended and Practised by Mr. John Locke, 1770.

Try a Commonplace Book — D&C 85-87