Creating a Commonplace Book Out of My Documents

[EternalForest]

After watching the Commonplace Book episode, I was really inspired to put one of these together for myself. And after going through my computer for a bit I realized that I may not even need to use OneNote for it, I could use My Documents! Let me explain:

I don't know about you guys, but over the years I've saved literally thousands of .doc and .txt documents on my computer of interesting things I read, amazing websites I've downloaded/indexed as resources for myself, lists I've made, schedules I've made, journals and personal introspection from throughout the years, pdfs, creative ideas, to do lists, book notes, video notes and more. So in a way, I've been keeping my own "commonplace book" in My Documents since 2013. I just haven't organized it yet. I'm organizing it as we speak and the idea of it all being in one place properly labeled is an idea that really excites me. I may even post some screenshots/videos of how I have the folders organized and indexed with a bunch of tiers, subfolders, etc.

Edit: Also, I've got tons of stuff from my saved reddit posts, gmail and google docs to go through, on top of the stuff in my laptop.

I don't feel the same friction when going to take notes like Leo described in the video. Maybe on paper, but not in notepad or Word. For me its as simple as opening notepad, getting my thoughts out, click X, save as, type name, enter, done.

Edited November 11, 2018 by EternalForest

[111111]

Make sure to back them up! 

Personally had times where computers/hard drives/MicroSD cards have suddenly failed/died.

[EternalForest]

@111111 Oh, that's the worst! I've had drives die and that's like years worth of personal family videos and photos just gone, like an entire void in your history. I lost almost all our early videos that way, or the file just vanished somewhere else. Luckily the one hard drive I have that has all my early music is still safe. I really should buy another hard drive for all my music project files, since if my desktop crashes those are all gone. That stuff is really important to me since music is my life purpose (as well as filmmaking). And of course I'll get a drive to backup my Commonplace Book.

Going through these files, it's actually an amazing phenomenon, making all these little documents, saving them away for later, and never coming back to them. Now that I'm coming back to them its almost like my brain is overwhelmed with information, its all coming back at once in kind of an intense way. Most of it I remember making but some of it I don't, or at least I thought I'd never re open them. Many are just named asd;jkfhasd'flasf or something like that. I know once its all organized it'll be a true goldmine.

[111111]

@EternalForest I am so paranoid about security that I back everything in 3 places, 2 physical and 1 online. All passwords

and files are perfectly intertwined into a pyramid. Childhood abuse emerged into me being hyper paranoid)

I had so many diaries + photos, yet burnt/deleted them all, because I don't care about the idiot I was a few years ago)))

[EternalForest]

@111111 I'd keep them, just so you can see how much you've grown. I mean, there's things about your past that you may want to do away with, but I've found there are also things about your past that you may want to start doing again. While yes, it's good to do away with old bad habits, you also don't want to do away with old good habits in the process.

A good example is riding your bike, something you probably did as a kid but don't do anymore but its still a lot of fun and great exercise. Also, talking on the phone. You probably talked to your friends on the phone a lot when you were younger but not so much anymore, but you'll find that talking on the phone can actually give you a lot more depth in conversation than texting can sometimes. Maybe you used to cook a lot at home but nowadays someone else cooks for you or you always go out to eat or eat too much takeout, why not start cooking again like you used to? Creatively speaking, why not make music in a different style than you normally do today? Over time we tend to get set in our habits and looking back can open our eyes to some of the good things we used to do that we can start doing again.

[111111]

@EternalForest That's a great life-lesson to highlight! 

Texting is so shallow. I barely text/phone call with my friend, YET when we meet once in a while we talk for 6-12 hours almost non-stop, mentally devouring each other.

If you want to deepen your relationship with friend/partner/child, I highly recommend:

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/11/fashion/no-37-big-wedding-or-small.html  (you can use these with anyone, not just romantic partner)

https://www.amazon.com/Book-Questions-Revised-Updated/dp/0761177310 

[EternalForest]

@111111 I'll check out those links. 

I have great friends too, my two best friends and I usually hang out once a week and we always do different stuff and have fun, we've been best friends for almost 10 years! Whenever I hang out with one of them we literally talk the entire time nonstop. It's gotten to the point where we have to stop each other or we'll never get to the point haha!

The best thing I can compare it to is a freeway. The point of the conversation is like the destination you're trying to get to, but as we talk we can get caught up in the exits on the way. Each exit could take 20 to 45 minutes to get out of before we circle back around to the point. Sometimes we talk about starting a podcast, we really should honestly. I have 3-4 friends I can talk to like this.

Edit: My record conversation time is 8 hours, that beat the record set a few years before, which was 7 hours. But the average convo time is 2 to 3 hours.

Edited November 11, 2018 by EternalForest

[Leo Gura]

OneNote would be so much more efficient.

The search functions and other features become essential as your notes grow.

Try it! And you will never go back.

OneNote is Microsoft's greatest software.

[kieranperez]

This seems like such a pain in the ass. I’m HORRIBLE at organization and note taking and I still agree on just sticking with OneNote