Journal vs. Commonplace Book: Why You Need Both

I started a thinking session in Ember with this question: What’s the difference between a journal and a commonplace book?

They’re two very different tools — but it’s not this or that. It’s both/and. It’s the equivalent of having a hammer and a screwdriver: you can knock out some projects with one, and some with the other. But there are projects that require both.

Working through your life is one of those projects.

A commonplace book is a book of quotes from other people — ideas and passages from books you’ve read that struck you enough to keep. It’s not a spark file (that’s a list of your own ideas). A commonplace book is borrowed light.

I don’t tag mine. I prefer everything in one big pile, and I love the randomness of pulling from it — in my commonplace book app the homescreen is just one quote with a shuffle button to just peruse through the ideas. No complex sorting. The randomness is the feature.

The journal is the opposite tool. It’s a reflection of how you’re doing — what you’re feeling, thinking, and what you’ve done that day. The word journal comes from a Latin word meaning “daily”: a day’s work. And unlike a commonplace book, a journal is your words.

Journaling clears a muddy mind. It takes what’s in your head and puts it where your eyes can see it — on paper, a Notion page, inside Ember or Obsidian, wherever. You can’t examine what’s still swirling.

Here’s the part I can’t stop thinking about.

Imagine that after you’ve laid out what’s on your mind, your commonplace book could chime in. You look at what’s been happening in your life this past week, then look at the quotes you’ve saved — and ask: is there a pattern? Is there a quote that gives words to something you haven’t been able to express? Is there a journal entry that connects to a saved quote in a way that unlocks something that’s been locked away for a long time?

Words have the power to give life — that’s straight from Proverbs. And when your words and their words collide, doors open that have been shut for years.

For me, creativity isn’t born when everything is tidy and separate. It comes from cross-pollination, unexpected combinations, and head-on collisions between things that don’t necessarily go together. — Brian Rutenberg

The hammer and the screwdriver aren’t competing. They work together to complete something worth doing — and your life is being worked on. Not productivity for its own sake. But you’re working through things. Why not use two tools? You can explore more intellectual land that way.

One more thing: notice the simplicity of a hammer and a screwdriver. They don’t require power. They won’t lose charge. You can use the same screwdriver for 60 years.

The commonplace book and the journal are the same. Simple tools. You don’t have to complicate them. It’s their simplicity that keeps them evergreen — they’ll follow you through all different kinds of seasons.

P.S. — The commonplace book I described above is Ember, a tool I built for exactly this kind of thinking. Everything sits in one big pile — no tags, no folders — and you can search by vibe, by feeling, or by asking a question. The home screen is just one quote to sit with, and you can shuffle it. If you’ve been wanting a place where your words and their words can finally meet, come pull up a chair by the fire.