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Leo capturing a highlight on a MacBook

Your intelligent
commonplace book.

Capture quotes, ideas, and observations with a single click. Your thinking, organised alongside what sparked it.

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Marcus Aurelius c. 170 CE · Leonardo da Vinci c. 1500s · John Locke 1685 · Benjamin Franklin 1726 · Charles Darwin 1837 · Virginia Woolf 1880s–1920s ·

A personal notebook for quotes, ideas, and observations.

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Save quotes from articles

Write what strikes you as you read. The source stays with your note.

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Catch podcast ideas

Jot while you listen. The episode and timestamp are linked automatically.

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Mark passages worth re-reading

Longer excerpts land with the title, URL, and date attached.

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Tag questions you're chewing on

Half-answers find their way back to the question later.

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Jot your own observations

Free-form thoughts, alongside whatever you are reading or watching.

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Annotate videos as you watch

Every note is kept with its timestamp and the video's URL.

Writers

  • Passages Save the words, lines, and turns of phrase that inspire you. Build a personal library of reference material to draw on in your next project.
  • Field notes Capture your observations the moment they strike, faster than ever, with a single click. Build a record of the world as you saw it, ready for the page that needs it.
  • Seeds Jot down a rough idea next to the material that sparked it. Build a backlog of starting points so you never face the blank page again.

Researchers

  • Excerpts Save the passages, findings, and quotations that sharpen your thinking. Build a personal library of evidence to draw on as your argument takes shape.
  • Hypotheses Jot down a working theory the moment a source provokes one. Build a record of your evolving thinking, anchored to the material that shaped it.
  • Connections Capture the threads and patterns you spot between sources, in a single click. Build a web of links that turns a pile of reading into an argument.

Entrepreneurs

  • Signals Save the customer quotes, competitor moves, and market shifts the moment you notice them. Build a record of what the world is telling you, ready for your next decision.
  • Hunches Jot down a half-formed bet next to the signal that sparked it. Build a backlog of angles to test, so the next idea is never starting from scratch.
  • Lessons Capture what worked, what didn't, and why — in the moment you learn it. Build a set of principles earned from experience, not borrowed from a book.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between a commonplace book and a journal?
A journal records your daily experiences chronologically: what happened, who you saw, how the day felt. A commonplace book collects ideas, quotes, and observations from everything you read, hear, and encounter. A journal is about your life. A commonplace book is about your thinking. Virginia Woolf famously kept both, in separate notebooks.
What should I put in a commonplace book?
Anything that strikes you: quotes from books, podcast insights, your own observations, recipes, half-formed ideas, questions, connections between things you've learned, even sketches and overheard conversations. The only rule is that it matters to you.
Is Leo a replacement for my paper commonplace book?
Only if you want it to be. Many people keep both. Paper for slow, reflective entries; Leo for anything they want searchable, shareable, or captured on the fly. Leo works alongside paper, not against it.

Ready to start?

Download Leo and begin your commonplace book today.

Download for Mac