Thanks very much again to Paul for this next instalment of his wonderful guest post series. This one is about Commonplace books and how Filofax can enhance the practice.
You can find all of the 'Filohax' posts here.
Zibaldone zone
Before I started Commonplacing (look it up - there are a million YouTube videos!), I didn't have a place for the random facts / quotes / passions and interests I've collected over the years.
My scrapbooks / bookshelves were bursting with disparate 'stuff' (I'm a bit of a hoarder). Then one day the algorithm got me - and I was hooked. Here was a reason to use my Filofax collection everyday - a Commonplace book I started simply, I used a Gloucester personal I had spare, chosen due to its lack of a strap closure - I figured that my commonplace book would be a reference book and not for carrying around. Next, I decided to look through my existing collection of information and to create a series of categories to help with the retrieval process later on.
"But if this is about Commonplace books; what is a Zibaldone?" I hear you thinking. Well, Zibaldone is an associated word which I think comes from the Italian for 'a mix of things' (the commonplace police will shoot me for this!). So when I started, as you'll see from the first few photos of my inserts I titled them 'Compendium' (yet another word, I wanted to do it my way😏). However, I use the Filofax A-Z dividers and my 'C' section was already very full - pushing my core content away from the sweet spot middle of the binder. My simple solution was to rebrand as 'Zibaldone' - my 'Z' tab being redundant at that point!
The benefits of Commonplacing are well documented, but what I don't think many are aware of is how using a ring binder can allow you to juxtapose content ad infinitum, creating new relationships between content that may never have been considered before (I'm almost starting to get 'Zettelkasten' vibes.. another story!).
In the coming weeks I aim to share a spread with the group every so often and would love to inspire others to have a go themselves - and maybe share their own Commonplacing?
