the power of a “commonplace book”
Poet WH Auden compiled a commonplace book - a collection of his favorite quotations and passages and personal insights that he added to over time. After I read about Auden’s, I started my own about 6-7 years ago and it has served me exceptionally well.
There are a bunch of different tech tools you can use to do this. My two favorites are:
The Notes app on laptop
Readwise.io: I’m a fanboy for this app. It takes Kindle highlights and other inputs you feed it and emails you a random selection of them each morning (or any other cadence you choose). The Readwise folks pitch it as a memory aid, which I guess it could be. I like it more as a prompt for daily reflection and reminder of the best bits of books I’ve read in the past. It’s unlikely I’ll go back through and skim or re-read each book, as nobly intent upon that as I might be. Readwise makes my fickle willpower irrelevant by just serving up the goods automatically.
As you gather more and more quotations, you can categorize them, if that helps you (“culture”, “crisis”, “community” etc etc).
When we’re in a less literary mood, Ben and I call this a “leadership cheat sheet.” It’s the well I draw from when I need an inspiring story, a pithy quote, or just a reminder of a bit of leadership wisdom.
Reviewing your commonplace book is a great replacement behavior for mindless scrolling on social. It’s like a personally curated Bible or book of psalms. You can keep it up as a tab in your browser or a window on your desktop.
Starting this only takes a minute, building it, only a few seconds at a time. It’s a powerful habit that creates something beautiful and enriching. It will serve you and your team in ways you can’t even predict.
Read Maria Popova’s lovely take on Auden’s commonplace book here.
-Eric
