How to Get More From Your Commonplace Book by Collecting Less

Phrases really begin once we’ve stopped playing. — Julian Lage

I heard this from a guitar player I admire, and at first I thought — what? What does that even mean? But the moment I stopped and sat with it, it started to make sense.

Melodies don’t always show up while we’re playing. Sometimes they show up after. It’s after the music has stopped, in the pause, that something begins to stir.

I can’t help but think that’s exactly how we should treat our commonplace book. Ideas start revealing themselves the moment we stop trying to collect the next thing. One more chapter. One more highlight. One more article. Instead — stop. Let things breathe. Let your mind ruminate, turning over the rock of ideas you’ve collected today, or even yesterday. Not going out to look for more rocks, more gems, but sitting with the ones you already have.

And go a step further: sit with one idea. That’s the way I prefer to do it. One idea that has moved me, and I sit with the words. I let them float in the air.

It’s like a snow globe. What makes a snow globe beautiful is the moment you stop shaking it. That’s what draws your eye — not the shaking. You can’t see anything while you keep shaking. And all that collecting? That’s the shaking. But once you pause your hand, the words begin to slow down, and drift, and settle.

Practically speaking, the way I watch them settle is by writing about them. What the words mean to me. What they make me think of. Other quotes they call to mind. Why they inspire me — or why I disagree, why they challenge me.

The phrase begins once you’ve stopped playing.

P.S. If you’re wondering how one idea gets “presented” to me — that’s Ember. It’s the quiet place I built for keeping a commonplace book and journal together. It hands you one spark at a time and gives you room to sit with it, and write, while it’s still warm.

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