Thinking back about my Filofax use over the years, I've realised recently that for the majority of the time I have used only one at a time. For some years, I did also use an A5 for planning projects and for writing longer notes, but the personal one was my external brain. Over time, I rehomed the A5s though, as I just didn't end up looking at them as my focus was mainly on the personal sized one.
For some reason recently, I've been toying with the idea of using a second Filofax in some other way, but I haven't decided on what exactly. I quite like the idea of setting up the second as a commonplace book, so as I do, wondered if there was already a post on the subject on Philofaxy.
I found this wonderful guest post - Guest Post: The Filofax that started it all - Jane and also another great post on another site that I'm going to have a look at - https://www.megan-rhiannon.com/gloomy-archive/2024/3/26/on-commonplacing
Do you or have you set up a Filofax as a commonplace book, and if so, do you have any tips or recommendations that you'd like to share?
And as always on Fridays, please feel free to discuss anything organiser related. I hope that you have a great weekend.
Anita this is very timely as I've been struggling a bit lately with where to write things I'm interested in and learning about. I considered using a bound notebook, but I know I like to use one notebook for one topic as I don't like multiple topics jumbled together in one book. Commonplacing in a ring binder takes the pressure off because I can use as many or as few pages as I want for a topic, just get the information captured and organise it later. Thanks for the inspiration!
ReplyDeleteLaurie
I've never given it a name before but I've done this "commonplacing" since I was a teenager. I've previously kept this is a bound journal but it lives in a drawer and is static, depending on my memory to go through it from time to time. Doing this instead in a filofax and bringing out key passages/pages to my current daily planner would be far more useful!! Thanks for linking to the incredible article, very interesting read.
ReplyDeleteHi Anita. I hope you're well, and thank you for this post. The post by Jane to which you refer, as I'm sure you know, is one of the all-time classic Philofaxy posts, and I remember very clearly the wave of enthusiasm it generated when first published. I remember doing some research and unearthing some very old source
ReplyDeleteUsing an organiser or part of your every day organiser for collecting together notes about so many things in our lives these days is a marvellous use of a Filofax.
ReplyDeleteI've tried doing it with the Notes app on my phone, but you quickly find that it gets in to a bit of a mess because so many things become hidden so quickly and you don't realise the significance of a note that you made. Far better to have them documented in an organiser and include them in your annual review of the information you are retaining.
Thank you for this post, I'd never heard of a commonplace book, and it seems a great use of a filofax.
ReplyDeleteHi Anita and thank you so much for this post. The old post you refer to is, I'm sure you will be aware, one of the all-time classics (and possibly most viewed) and I still remember the comments and appreciation it provoked. Although I never took up the commonplace book idea personally, I did do some research at the time and uncovered some very old 'original source ' material about them. Maybe I'll dig some out again.
ReplyDeleteI find it ironic that the whole commonplace book idea has been repackaged by Tiago Forte in his 'Second Brain' project, as a grand new concept for modern use - and digitally powered, of course - while the concept os at least 500 years old. I could suggest that plagiarism never goes out of fashion but I won't.......
Everything old is new again, right? ;)
DeleteI had only ever heard of a commonplace book being used in a theological context.
ReplyDeleteI'd love to say that I had been organised enough in my private professional lives to have made concise notes on useful topics for future use. But I haven't: I'm not that organised, and my memory used to be good enough that I didn't need to; I simply remembered stuff. Now, it might be more useful... I do have various notes, information, etc, collected over years in electronic form, organised in a hierarchical file system. But it's not formally done, and I'm not consistent at adding to it...
Taking notes is something anyone learning will do; we do that from earliest schooling. Ring binders are commonly used for such notes (I still have my university notes, in their lever arch binders, from 40 years ago...). I suppose the difference is that a commonplace book is more used for serendipitous notes, rather than formal study.
The use of a Filofax as a commonplace book reminded me of using index cards in a card file, or Zettelkasten:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zettelkasten
Kevin