---
cssclass: cornell-left cornell-border banner-image border-around-images
---
>[!banner-image] ![[banner-letters.jpg]]

## The Basics
Whether you are taking notes digitally or on paper, Cornell Notes start by dividing your notes into three sections: (1) Notes area (2) Cues, and (3) Summary.

>[!cue] How can this be done on paper?

On paper, you will divide the page into these three sections. Cues are on the left (or they can be on the right). For cues, you reserve about 1/5th of the page. The remainder of the horizontal area is for your notes, this is where you do the bulk of your work. Finally, on the bottom of the document, perhaps about 1/10th of the page length you reserve for a summary.

>[!cue] How is this done digitally?

When taking notes digitally, we can't divide the document into three sections, but we can keep the goal of having these three elements. We will see as we move along we can take notes for the notes part of Cornell Notes and Obsidian's Callout feature for cues and summaries. 

We will get to that a little later. As for now, we want to make sure we understand how to use each of these three sections of our notes.

# Notes
The whole purpose of the Cornell Note-Taking system is to take notes. So the notes section is where the bulk of our writing takes place. While taking notes, you can apply all the good note-taking concepts you have learned in your experience in life. 
![[Parts - Notes.png|200]]

For example, it can be helpful to lump main ideas together and leave spaces between them to make them stand out visually.

Using abbreviations can help your speed at capturing notes. For example, when taking a class, I will often look for common recurring words or phrases and come up with abbreviations for them. I often have an "abbreviations note" where I document the abbreviation and their meaning. 

# Cues
Cues are one of the "secret sauces" of Cornell Notes. Cues go into the left margin next to your notes' main ideas. Cues serve as brief visual triggers about what the main ideas are covering to the right of the cue in the notes section. 
![[Parts - Cue.png|200]]

Cues may be simple summaries of the main idea, questions to consider, small pictures that visually capture the essence of the main idea, or whatever will help you comprehend and recall the main idea later.

Make sure to look at the [[01 INDEX#Sample Documents|sample documents]] in this vault to see cues in action.

Some people make cues while taking notes. This helps them label the main ideas as cues while the main ideas are fresh in their mind.

While others like to add cues later after they have finished their writing as a way to review their notes, this has the advantage of reviewing to force your mind to recall what you wrote down earlier in your notes and then to summarize those central ideas into thoughts or questions. This review step reinforces retention. 

Remember that cues should help you quickly visually identify the main ideas in your notes. You should be able to open a note taken months, even years ago, and quickly recall the main ideas from the cues.

Cues trigger the mind into *mental recall*.

# Summary Section
The summary section at the end of the page summarizes the main thoughts from your notes. They are often just a few bullet points that encapsulate all the ideas you made notes on. The summary should be simple, to the point, and help with memory recall.

The summary is written after you have finished taking your notes. The fact is, we rarely know what the main takeaways are when we start taking notes. The summary process *forces us* to evaluate the value of these notes and draw meaningful conclusions.

>[!cue] Don't skip the summary if memory retention is your goal.

Again, this simple summary reinforces learning and memory retention and is vital to making Cornell Notes work for you. So don't skip this step!

If you use Cornell Notes in school or while reading a book, the summary section can help you connect what you previously learned to what you are about to learn. For this reason, it can be good to review the Summary section before the next class or reading session.
## Practical example: taking notes from a book
To explore how Cornell Notes can be used for everyday activities, such as taking notes on a book you are reading, check out this video from [Nick Milo](https://twitter.com/NickMilo).

![](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkfEKI469J8)



## Are Cornell Notes for use with paper only?
>[!cue] Not just for paper

Absolutely not! As a matter of fact, the principles of Cornell Notes, including their visual cues and summaries, can be replicated in Obsidian. That's the primary purpose of this vault - to assist you in utilizing the fundamental advantages of Cornell Notes within Obsidian.

The following document will discuss how to do this. Please continue reading [[Cornell Notes in Obsidian]].
