Pocket book LM 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 at school and note-taking is my saving grace earlier than the following take a look at — besides as an alternative of finding out, I am simply attempting to not neglect one thing I have to do.

Whether or not I am in a gathering or researching a brand new matter for a narrative, I take notes as I’m going. I strive to determine what is going on on with a brand new program or make sense of a subject that is getting traction recently, 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 all types of matters, and a free, easy-to-use note-taking app that is turn out to be common with thousands and thousands of customers.

I am additionally an enormous 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 truly fairly stunning. Not solely is my handwriting atrocious, however my notes could be actually onerous 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 the right way to convey it over

When you’re utilizing Obsidian, you possibly can open completely 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 fully as much as you ways you utilize them. I like to make use of Obsidian to maintain observe of my week. I normally have a observe with reminders for every day, together with one for freelance matters I need to analysis for story concepts. I will even make a each day observe for random ideas or issues I have to 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 avoid wasting every observe individually. That may current a little bit of a problem, because you would possibly lose the connections between your notes — and the AI could not perceive how all the pieces suits collectively. So, utilizing Markdown hyperlinks is essential.

Markdown is the key ingredient for straightforward integration

You’ll be able to 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 fairly than opening one observe after which one other simply to toggle between them, a Markdown hyperlink lets me leap from one to the opposite.

Which means 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 presents to assist individuals 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 a listing of the notes I had opened immediately and threw them into NotebookLM’s Thoughts Map. It mapped out all of my notes, exhibiting how they’re linked and the right way to finest navigate via them. It even discovered components of my analysis and notes that I hadn’t linked by way of Markdown hyperlinks and grouped them collectively. That may look like a small factor, however I achieve this a lot analysis on completely different matters that it may be powerful to maintain observe of all the pieces.

Granted, I do not at all times put all the pieces into Obsidian. However I do regularly hyperlink again to older notes from new ones. Utilizing Thoughts Map helps me make deeper connections to notes I’ll have missed linking. I additionally actually loved the newer NotebookLM instrument, Stories. I will add in a few of my scribblings (which can learn like they’re from a madman) and Stories 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 net. Since NotebookLM makes use of no matter I present as its supply materials, it might pull the solutions I would like straight from my analysis.

Generally, I simply use it to summarize and assist me manage

I can ask inquiries to remind me concerning the matter

I do lots in Obsidian to maintain observe of all the pieces happening in each my skilled and private life. Since I am at my laptop for a lot of the day, I converted from the iPhone’s Notes app to Obsidian as a result of it is a lot simpler to prepare and customise with completely different options. Now that NotebookLM has a cellular app as nicely, 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 make the most of its wide selection of options. Protecting Obsidian tidy additionally improves how nicely 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 will be, which is one thing I am genuinely so enthusiastic about.