Post: #1

I've been trying index cards because I like the idea of how easy they are to shuffle around and reorganize. They're also very portable.

In practice, however, I'm finding the small size pretty limiting. I tend to write a lot when I take notes and they fill up very quickly.

Anyone else keeping a commonplace book? What's your preferred method?

"The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. To be your own man is a hard business. If you try it, you'll be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself." - Rudyard Kipling

Post: #2

(03-28-2015 11:33 PM)Beyond Borders Wrote:  I've been trying index cards because I like the idea of how easy they are to shuffle around and reorganize. They're also very portable.

In practice, however, I'm finding the small size pretty limiting. I tend to write a lot when I take notes and they fill up very quickly.

Anyone else keeping a commonplace book? What's your preferred method?

I know you have already read the Ryan Holiday article but I want to highlight a few things:

Quote:Wisdom, not facts. We’re not just looking random pieces of information. What’s the point of that? Your commonplace book, over a lifetime (or even just several years), can accumulate a mass of true wisdom–that you can turn to in times of crisis, opportunity, depression or job.

Quote:“Do you think he is searching in his books for a way to become better, happier, or wiser?” In Montaigne’s mind, if he wasn’t, it was all a waste. A commonplace book is a way to keep our learning priorities in order. It motivates us to look for and keep only the things we can use.

Here's what I like about using index cards. They force me to be short and succinct. They force me to keep only what is absolutely essential. Like he says, "better, happier, wiser."

What goes on my notecards are only the best 4-5 things from the entire book. The process I have for reading documents the rest of the information.

Always reading with a pencil is big for me. He talks about marginalia. That, along with folding corners is my bread and butter. I don't hesitate to fold corners or write in the margins. I have a lot of books that have drawings in the margins, huge "What the fuck?" notations, explanations, random thoughts, etc.

If I need to remember something from a book I can open it up and usually find it on one of my page folds in a couple minutes. If I write something on a notecard that is only one line of a larger idea I will write, "continued on page ____" and usually that pages will have all kinds of graffiti on it.

I feel like if I used a notebook instead of cards a lot of ideas would get lost.

Another thing I do when I read books is to snag something weird to use as a bookmark for every new book. Each book in my library has its own bookmark and a lot of times that reminds me where I was at in my life when I read it. I have receipts from coffeeshops and other stores, dollar bills, magazine pages, actual bills, polaroid pictures. That brings back a lot of previous thoughts that I had otherwise forgotten.

Post: #3

I'm at a bit of a disadvantage living abroad because books are expensive to ship here, and I change locations a lot so physical books make little sense, for now. I do plan to build a cabin somewhere, maybe stateside, and want to amass a library eventually, but it's not in the cards at the moment.

One big flaw in the kindle is note-taking. They have some features but it's not the same, and I imagine it will become more robust over time.

Some people talk about a commonplace book using loose-leaf notebooks - like a 3-ring binder, for instance. A stack of these might make more sense but they could quickly take up a lot of room. Obviously i couldn't travel around with them, either. I'd have to mail them home as they filled up and look forward to having them at my disposal later in life.

What I may do is turn my notes into blog posts and let that be somewhere I can refer to as needed. I could create a directory on site for simple navigation and reorganize it from time to time or even link to the same place in multiple spots as needed.

"The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. To be your own man is a hard business. If you try it, you'll be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself." - Rudyard Kipling

Post: #4

I came across a post a while back about using OneNote to create a commonplace. I've been trying to follow it: http://www.startgainingmomentum.com/?s=onenote . I'm sure physical is best, but I prefer electronic because I always have it with me and I don't have to worry about storage.

I'll have to check out Ryan Holiday's post.

Post: #5

This might be the best solution for a traveler. How much online backup space do you get in OneNote before they start charging you?

"The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. To be your own man is a hard business. If you try it, you'll be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself." - Rudyard Kipling

Post: #6

Setting up a Microsoft Live.com account comes with 25GB, I think. I'm paying for Office 365, so I have over 1TB. Storage is no problem for me, but even a basic free account should be nothing to worry about.

OneNote now has clients for every platform. Of course, the absolute best client is only available for Windows PC, but iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Android clients will get the job done.

I use a Feedly Pro account to clip blog posts I want to keep in my Common Place. All but Live.com email are blocked at work, but Feedly Pro can send to your OneNote or Evernote accounts through their back end.

Post: #7

(03-29-2015 01:17 AM)Beyond Borders Wrote:  I'm at a bit of a disadvantage living abroad because books are expensive to ship here, and I change locations a lot so physical books make little sense, for now. I do plan to build a cabin somewhere, maybe stateside, and want to amass a library eventually, but it's not in the cards at the moment.

One big flaw in the kindle is note-taking. They have some features but it's not the same, and I imagine it will become more robust over time.

Some people talk about a commonplace book using loose-leaf notebooks - like a 3-ring binder, for instance. A stack of these might make more sense but they could quickly take up a lot of room. Obviously i couldn't travel around with them, either. I'd have to mail them home as they filled up and look forward to having them at my disposal later in life.

What I may do is turn my notes into blog posts and let that be somewhere I can refer to as needed. I could create a directory on site for simple navigation and reorganize it from time to time or even link to the same place in multiple spots as needed.

Turning your notes into blog posts could turn out to be a pretty neat idea. The only issue would be backing it up somehow to make sure you never lose such a valuable resource.

When I read kindle books I copy and paste passages straight into a word document that I transcribe to note cards later on.

I wonder if there is a way you could take notes onto a digital notecard. Then when you were ready to print them all you would have to do is hook up to a printer and hit print.

Post: #8

I use Microsoft OneNote on my iPad, and it's excellent. The iPad app has a much better interface than the online version. Since the entire works of Shakespeare is ~8MB, I doubt storage would ever be an issue.

Post: #9

(03-29-2015 08:49 AM)General Mayhem Wrote:  

(03-29-2015 01:17 AM)Beyond Borders Wrote:  I'm at a bit of a disadvantage living abroad because books are expensive to ship here, and I change locations a lot so physical books make little sense, for now. I do plan to build a cabin somewhere, maybe stateside, and want to amass a library eventually, but it's not in the cards at the moment.

One big flaw in the kindle is note-taking. They have some features but it's not the same, and I imagine it will become more robust over time.

Some people talk about a commonplace book using loose-leaf notebooks - like a 3-ring binder, for instance. A stack of these might make more sense but they could quickly take up a lot of room. Obviously i couldn't travel around with them, either. I'd have to mail them home as they filled up and look forward to having them at my disposal later in life.

What I may do is turn my notes into blog posts and let that be somewhere I can refer to as needed. I could create a directory on site for simple navigation and reorganize it from time to time or even link to the same place in multiple spots as needed.

Turning your notes into blog posts could turn out to be a pretty neat idea. The only issue would be backing it up somehow to make sure you never lose such a valuable resource.

When I read kindle books I copy and paste passages straight into a word document that I transcribe to note cards later on.

I wonder if there is a way you could take notes onto a digital notecard. Then when you were ready to print them all you would have to do is hook up to a printer and hit print.

Evernote is probably a good resource for something like that. I've been using OneNote more since the quality and integration have improved dramatically in recent years, but I've used Evernote for about 10 years to record quotes I want to keep. I've built up quite a library. I also use Evernote to record every book I read. Every year, I create a new tag for "Books I've read (year)". That way I can go back through and see what I read. It's easy to forget when you read 50+ books a year.

When you take notes in a Kindle book, Amazon gives you access to all your notes and highlights at kindle.amazon.com. You can easily take all of your notes from Kindle books and save them to Evernote. OneNote, or a Word document that way.