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 just a few issues to jog my reminiscence. It is like I am nonetheless at school and note-taking is my saving grace earlier than the subsequent check — besides as a substitute of finding out, I am simply making an attempt to not neglect one thing I must do.

Whether or not I am in a gathering or researching a brand new subject 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 way in which. My favourite app to make use of is Obsidian. It is nice for protecting tabs on every kind of matters, and a free, easy-to-use note-taking app that is turn out to be widespread with hundreds of thousands 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 might be actually laborious to decipher. Fortunately, AI was in a position to assist me spot some patterns.

Obsidian is straightforward to make use of and easy to combine

I used to be happy with tips on how to deliver it over

In case you’re utilizing Obsidian, you’ll be able to 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 fully 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 word with reminders for every day, together with one for freelance matters I need to analysis for story concepts. I am going to even make a day by day word for random ideas or issues I must look into.

Fortunately, there are just a few methods to combine the notes I hold 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 word 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 every thing suits collectively. So, utilizing Markdown hyperlinks is necessary.

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 take advantage of 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 hold them in folders in my vault, however somewhat than opening one word after which one other simply to toggle between them, a Markdown hyperlink lets me soar 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 gives to assist folks research and do analysis. After all, I additionally fill out my pocket book with different analysis hyperlinks exterior of Obsidian to color a fuller image of no matter subject 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 as we speak and threw them into NotebookLM’s Thoughts Map. It mapped out all of my notes, displaying how they’re linked and tips on how to greatest navigate via them. It even discovered components 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 accomplish that a lot analysis on totally different matters that it may be powerful to maintain observe of every thing.

Granted, I do not all the time put every thing 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 could have missed linking. I additionally actually loved the newer NotebookLM software, Reviews. I am going to add in a few of my scribblings (which can learn like they’re from a madman) and Reviews 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 may pull the solutions I would like straight from my analysis.

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

I can ask inquiries to remind me in regards to the subject

I do lots in Obsidian to maintain observe of every thing happening in each my skilled and private life. Since I am at my laptop 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 prepare and customise with totally different options. Now that NotebookLM has a cell app as nicely, it opens up much more flexibility in how I combine it with Obsidian.

I can return into Obsidian to revise or develop what I’ve written and benefit from its big selection of options. Holding 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 take advantage of these two and combine them, the higher they’re going to be, which is one thing I am genuinely so enthusiastic about.