There are many different note taking formats in the world, from the outline method, which is the most traditional of note taking methods, to the Zettelkasten method where each idea or concept is a single note, to sketch notes where we draw our concepts with graphs diagrams and pictures. Each one has it's benefit, but more importantly each one has a use case that better suits it. For Today's topic we're going to look at how specifically the Cornell Note can be used within Obsidian to enhance your note taking experience, and supercharge your understanding of a topic. Lets dive right in. ## Video Version #vlog Today's video is an accomanying one that goes over the TFT Hacker example, and how to use it in Obsidian.  ## What's a Cornell Note A Cornell note is a method taking notes developed by Walter Pauk, a Professor at Cornell University, and was invented in the 1950's. Originally called the 2-6-2 Method whereby pages were divided up into 3 sections by an I shaped ruling that was 2 inches, 6 Inches, and 2 Inches separated. ![[Cornell Note Diagram.png]] As you can see the body of the note is broken into 3 main fields, the Cue's (or Q's), The Notes, and the Summary. The bulk of the notes land as you would imagine in the bigger area where you capture what your lecturer, trainer, YouTube video, Book, or fleeting thought goes. As you create these body notes, questions or ideas start to form in your head, this is what the Cue's column is for, you're predefined areas can let you capture your questions as they appear, and it's a good idea to capture them as they appear - even if they're answered in the next sentence, as it gets you invested in the note making process. Finally the Summary section, lets you distil your notes and questions down to a couple of key points, capturing the Gist of what's on the page. It's completely OK here to not actually put anything. In either the Cue's or the Summary section, but the power in it comes from asking questions, and summarising your notes as soon as is reasonable after the initial notes are captured. ## So what does that have to do with Obsidian ![[ThumbnailMockup.png]] Well Obsidian is focused around the Zettelkasten method, using atomic ideas and linking thoughts together, it's typically a single page, and flows from the left to the right, top down to the bottom. That's pretty far from a Cornell note, well in a Linear sense, you can use callouts as we talked about in [[Level up in Obsidian - Using Templates and Callouts to make your notes pop!]] which is a good in-line way to create those questions and thought processes, as well as summarising your notes, but that doesn't quite create that view point that we're looking for. ## Enter TFT Hacker TFTHacker (standing for Tools for Thought Hacker) is a member of the Obsidian community who develops plug-ins and experiments to enhance your tools for thought. The most recent release is the [Cornell Notes Learning Vault](https://tfthacker.com/cornell-notes). Which is a full featured learning vault to help enhance the obsidian note taking experience from this. ![[ObsidianExample.png]] To this - complete with summary, Cue's on the side column, and banners! ![[Cornell Notes Example.png]] ## Use Cases So the cool thing with a Cornell note, is that you can capture a lot of key information with each point being effectively it's own atomic Obsidian note. My favourite use case for a Cornell note is to rapidly take down content during lectures, books, videos - capturing concepts and ideas, and asking myself questions as we go. At the end of the capture session finishing with a Summary (as soon as reasonably possible). They make fantastic literature notes, and fleeting notes, and work very well for capturing questions that are yet to be answered - which could be useful for your evergreen notes. My second favourite use case is actually sitting down in front of a blank piece of paper, ruling it up Cornell Note style, and just letting my brain run wild. Not only is this a fantastic use case for de-cluttering your mind and helping you in your [[Conquer Overwhelm - Unlocking Productivity with the Eisenhower Matrix|Eisenhower Matrix]] but also you often have a number of ideas just bouncing around in there may just wildly become the topic of your next brain storm. ![[CornellPaperExFinal.png]]