Note taking methods: 5 ways to write notes you'll use again

Pick the method by what the information looks like when it arrives. The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga's study guide sets out five methods, and each one suits a different kind of talk or page. They were built for lectures, but the same logic works for a call with the bank, a parents' evening or a plan for the weekend.

If you only learn one, learn the outline method. Most everyday notes, like a doctor's instructions or the steps a support agent reads out, arrive in order, and an outline keeps them in that order with almost no effort.

The outline method puts the most general point on the left and indents each more specific point under it. The study guide notes that you don't need numbers, letters or Roman numerals: the indent alone shows which point belongs to which.

How to do it:

1. Write the first main point against the left margin.
2. Indent the details that belong to it.
3. When the topic changes, go back to the left margin.
4. Afterwards, turn each main point into a question. It's the quickest way to check you followed it.

Use it when someone gives you information in a clear order and you have a moment to think between points: instructions from a clinic, a briefing at a new job, a course that follows its slides. Skip it when the talk jumps around, because you'll spend the call deciding where each line goes instead of listening.

Cornell University's Learning Strategies Center credits the Cornell system to Walter Pauk, an education professor at Cornell, who set it out in his book How to Study in College. It's the method to use when you'll need to remember the notes later.

How to do it:

1. Rule a margin of about two and a half inches on the left of the page, and leave the rest for notes.
2. During the call or meeting, write in the wide column. Skip a few lines when the topic changes.
3. Afterwards, fill in any half-finished phrases, then write a cue word or short question in the left margin beside each important point.
4. To review, cover the notes and leave the cues showing. Say what each cue stands for, then check.

The study guide calls it a "do-it-right-in-the-first-place system": the cues mean you never have to copy the notes out again. It's the best fit for anything you'll come back to, like the notes from a course, or a long meeting with your child's school where three things need doing over the next month.

Mapping puts the main idea in the middle of the page and branches out to each related idea and its details. It shows how things connect, which an outline hides.

How to do it:

1. Write the topic in the centre of the page and circle it, then draw a branch for each big idea as it comes up.
2. Add the details as smaller branches off the idea they belong to.
3. Afterwards, number the branches in the order you'll act on them, so the map tells you where to start.

The study guide notes how easy maps are to edit by adding numbers, marks and colour. Use mapping for a plan with many moving parts, like a house move or a birthday party, or to sort out your own thinking before a decision. It's a poor fit when order matters, because a map doesn't show what comes first.

Charting turns the page into a table before the information arrives. You decide the columns in advance, then fill each one as you go.

How to do it:

1. Before the call, write the things you're comparing across the top: three contractors, two schools, four phone plans.
2. Write the points you'll ask each one down the side: when they can start, what's included, what happens if something goes wrong.
3. Fill in each box as you hear the answer.

It cuts the writing down to a few words per box, and the comparison is done by the time you hang up. Use it any time you're choosing between options on the same points. It doesn't work when you don't know the questions yet, so for a first call, use the sentence method and chart the second round.

The sentence method writes every new point on its own numbered line. It's the simplest method, and the one to fall back on when information comes fast.

How to do it:

1. Number each new fact, thought or instruction and give it its own line.
2. Don't try to group or rank anything while you're listening.
3. Afterwards, mark the lines that need action and cross out the ones that don't.

The study guide's warning is fair: you can't tell big points from small ones in a numbered list, so the notes need a tidy-up before they're useful. That's a fair trade when a support agent reads out eight steps in a row, or a landlord lists everything that needs fixing before you move in.

The method you use in the moment matters less than where the note ends up. Most notes that get lost aren't badly written. They're in the wrong app, or titled "Notes 14".

• One note per thing: "Car service" is a note, but "Monday" isn't.
• Name each note so search finds it: who, what and when. "Dr Lim, knee, 4 Nov" beats "Appointment".
• Keep folders broad and few, such as Home, Work, Health, Money and Family. Tiago Forte's PARA method sorts everything into four top-level folders: projects, areas, resources and archives.
• Use colour for one thing only, such as red for anything waiting on you. Colour-coded notes stop working once every colour means something different.
• Move action items out and onto your to-do list. A note makes a poor list of tasks, because you only see a task when you happen to open that note.
• Look over the week's notes once, in a weekly review, and archive what's done.

The last two points matter most. A note that says "call the plumber back" is a task stuck in the wrong place until it's on your list with a day attached.

Palby Planner keeps your notes one tab away from your tasks, so each method above ends in the same place: the things you need to do, on your list.

• Folders you name, with sub-folders, so the Home and Health notes stay apart.
• A colour for each note, labels that filter the list, and pinned notes that stay at the top.
• Search that finds a note as you type, so "plumber" or "passport" brings it back.
• Checklist lines: start a line with [] and it becomes a box to tick. Turn into tasks then makes one task for each unticked line. To move a single note to your list, Convert to task makes the whole note one task.
• Note templates for meeting notes, a call summary, a decision log and a brainstorm, and you can save your own note as a template, such as a Cornell layout with a cues section at the top.

• University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, Center for Academic Support and Advisement: Common note-taking methods, read 2 November 2026
• Cornell University Learning Strategies Center: The Cornell note taking system, read 2 November 2026
• Forte Labs: The PARA method, read 2 November 2026