NotebookLM and Obsidian are the dynamic duo I did not know I wanted

Taking notes is one thing many people do all through the day. I do know I am unable to get via mine with out setting reminders or jotting down a couple of issues to jog my reminiscence. It is like I am nonetheless in class and note-taking is my saving grace earlier than the subsequent take a look at — besides as an alternative of learning, I am simply attempting to not overlook one thing I must do.

Whether or not I am in a gathering or researching a brand new matter for a narrative, I take notes as I am going. I attempt to determine what is going on on with a brand new program or make sense of a subject that is getting traction these days, and I jot issues down alongside the best way. My favourite app to make use of is Obsidian. It is nice for conserving tabs on every kind of matters, and a free, easy-to-use note-taking app that is turn into common with tens of millions of customers.

I am additionally a giant proponent of NotebookLM and figured why not attempt to use Google’s note taking app to assist me decipher a few of my notes in Obsidian. What I discovered was really fairly stunning. Not solely is my handwriting atrocious, however my notes may be actually exhausting to decipher. Fortunately, AI was in a position to assist me spot some patterns.

Obsidian is simple to make use of and easy to combine

I used to be happy with find out how to deliver it over

In case you’re utilizing Obsidian, you may open totally different sorts of notes and use them for absolutely anything. On the finish of the day, you are the one typing in them, so it is utterly as much as you the way you utilize them. I like to make use of Obsidian to maintain observe of my week. I normally have a notice with reminders for every day, together with one for freelance matters I wish to analysis for story concepts. I am going to even make a day by day notice for random ideas or issues I must look into.

Fortunately, there are a couple of methods to combine the notes I maintain in my Obsidian vault. I can export them as PDFs and add them to NotebookLM. It is easy sufficient, however you do have to save lots of every notice individually. That may current a little bit of a problem, because you would possibly lose the connections between your notes — and the AI might not perceive how every thing matches collectively. So, utilizing Markdown hyperlinks is vital.

Markdown is the key ingredient for simple integration

You possibly can copy, paste, and get the hyperlinks

As a result of NotebookLM works with Markdown, I exploit Markdown hyperlinks in my Obsidian notes. I depend on these hyperlinks to attach my notes and assist me perceive which matters are a part of the identical analysis thread. I do maintain them in folders in my vault, however moderately than opening one notice after which one other simply to toggle between them, a Markdown hyperlink lets me bounce from one to the opposite.

Meaning I can copy and paste textual content from Obsidian into NotebookLM, and it understands how the notes are linked… all because of the Markdown hyperlinks. That is confirmed after I use one of many many options that NotebookLM affords to assist folks examine and do analysis. In fact, I additionally fill out my pocket book with different analysis hyperlinks outdoors of Obsidian to color a fuller image of no matter matter I am diving into, particularly if I am beginning with notes I uploaded from Obsidian.

Thoughts Map helps me join my analysis additional

I uploaded an inventory of the notes I had opened as we speak and threw them into NotebookLM’s Thoughts Map. It mapped out all of my notes, displaying how they’re linked and find out how to finest navigate via them. It even discovered elements of my analysis and notes that I hadn’t linked through Markdown hyperlinks and grouped them collectively. That may appear to be a small factor, however I achieve this a lot analysis on totally different matters that it may be robust to maintain observe of every thing.

Granted, I do not all the time put every thing into Obsidian. However I do incessantly hyperlink again to older notes from new ones. Utilizing Thoughts Map helps me make deeper connections to notes I could have missed linking. I additionally actually loved the newer NotebookLM instrument, Studies. I am going to add in a few of my scribblings (which can learn like they’re from a madman) and Studies can flip that right into a briefing doc to assist me higher perceive each my very own writing and the analysis hyperlinks I’ve added from across the internet. Since NotebookLM makes use of no matter I present as its supply materials, it might probably pull the solutions I want straight from my analysis.

Generally, I simply use it to summarize and assist me set up

I can ask inquiries to remind me concerning the matter

I do a lot in Obsidian to maintain observe of every thing happening in each my skilled and private life. Since I am at my pc for many of the day, I converted from the iPhone’s Notes app to Obsidian as a result of it is a lot simpler to arrange and customise with totally different options. Now that NotebookLM has a cellular app as properly, it opens up much more flexibility in how I combine it with Obsidian.

I can return into Obsidian to revise or broaden what I’ve written and benefit from its big selection of options. Protecting Obsidian tidy additionally improves how properly NotebookLM can course of and use the content material — particularly as I make updates. As soon as I sync the 2, I can use NotebookLM like a chatbot, asking questions to go looking deeper into the analysis. The extra I exploit these two and combine them, the higher they’re going to be, which is one thing I am genuinely so enthusiastic about.