ParrotNotes

Free Cornell Notes Template

Pick the kind of session, a training, a meeting, a webinar or course, or a book, and the page sets itself up with a cue column on the left, notes on the right and a summary box at the bottom. Type your notes as the session runs, add the cues afterwards, then print the page, save it as a PDF or copy it as text or Markdown. Want paper instead? Switch to blank pages and print up to ten.

What goes on a Cornell notes page

  • Header

    Title, topic or course, date and who was presenting, so the page belongs to one session and you can find it again in a pile of others.

  • Notes column

    The wide column on the right, about 6 inches of a letter page. During the session you write what is said there, in short phrases rather than sentences.

  • Cue column

    The narrow column on the left, about 2.5 inches. After the session you write a question or key word beside each block of notes; later you cover the notes and answer the cues from memory.

  • Summary

    The box across the bottom, about 2 inches. A sentence or two on what the page says and what you will do with it. It is the part you read first when you come back.

  • Presets

    Training, meeting, webinar or course, and book or article each add starter cues to the empty cue boxes: the key idea and how you will use it, the decision and the owner, the main argument and the evidence. Blank adds none.

  • Blank pages

    Switch to blank mode for a printable page with the header lines, the two columns, the summary box and ruled lines in the notes column, one to ten pages at a time.

How the Cornell method works

The Cornell note-taking system was developed by Walter Pauk, an education professor at Cornell University, and set out in his book How to Study in College. The page is split three ways: on a letter-sized sheet, a 2.5-inch cue column on the left, a 6-inch note-taking area on the right and the bottom 2 inches for the summary. This template keeps those proportions on screen and on paper.

The method is usually taught as five Rs. Record: during the session, write as many meaningful facts and ideas as you can in the notes column. Reduce: as soon as you can afterwards, boil them down to questions and key words in the cue column. Recite: cover the notes and, using only the cues, say the ideas in your own words, then check. Reflect: ask what the material means for your work and how it connects to what you already know. Review: spend at least ten minutes a week going back over your notes.

It was built for lectures, but the same page works for anything you have to learn from at work: a product training, an onboarding week, a compliance course, a webinar, a book your manager handed you. For a meeting, the cues become the decisions, the open questions and the action items with an owner, and the summary is the two lines you would send to someone who missed it.

Want the summary written from a recording instead? Try the lecture summarizer.

Taking notes for the record of a meeting rather than for yourself? Use the meeting minutes generator.

Cornell notes, outline notes, mind maps and minutes

Cornell notes
Notes on the right, questions on the left, a summary at the bottom. Built for reviewing later: you test yourself from the cues. This template.
Outline notes
Headings and indented bullets in the order things were said. Quick to write when the speaker is well organized, harder to review because nothing asks you a question.
Mind map
The topic in the middle and ideas branching out. Good for seeing how ideas connect, awkward for a session that runs in a straight line.
Meeting minutes
The official record of a meeting: who attended, what was decided, who does what. Written for the group, not for your own review; Cornell notes are yours.

Tips for Cornell notes that get used

  • Leave the cue column empty during the session

    Write notes only. The cues come afterwards, when you reduce the notes to questions; that step is where most of the remembering happens.

  • Write cues as questions

    "What are the three discount levels?" is something you can answer with the notes covered. "Discounts" is only a label.

  • Summarize the same day

    Two sentences written an hour after the training beat a page of notes read a week later. Use the summary prompt if you are stuck.

  • Put action items in the cue column

    In a meeting or a training, the cue column is the place for "Owner: Dana, by Friday". You find them at a glance without reading every note.

More on notes that turn into action: how to take notes fast, note-taking in meetings, the meeting summary template, sales onboarding.

Sources

Fill the cue column. Let the app take the dictation.

Record the training, webinar or meeting with ParrotNotes and it writes the transcript, the notes, a summary and the action items. You spend the session listening and thinking up cues instead of racing to write everything down. Free for 100 minutes of recording a month.

Get Started Free

Related tools

Cornell notes questions