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 can not get by 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 following check — besides as an alternative of finding out, I am simply attempting to not overlook 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 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 currently, and I jot issues down alongside the best way. My favourite app to make use of is Obsidian. It is nice for retaining tabs on all types of subjects, and a free, easy-to-use note-taking app that is change into in style 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 shocking. Not solely is my handwriting atrocious, however my notes will be actually exhausting to decipher. Fortunately, AI was capable of assist me spot some patterns.

Obsidian is straightforward to make use of and easy to combine

I used to be happy with find out how to carry 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 employ them. I like to make use of Obsidian to maintain observe of my week. I often have a observe with reminders for every day, together with one for freelance subjects I need to analysis for story concepts. I am going to even make a day by day observe for random ideas or issues I have to 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 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 every little thing suits collectively. So, utilizing Markdown hyperlinks is essential.

Markdown is the key ingredient for simple 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 subjects are a part of the identical analysis thread. I do hold them in folders in my vault, however quite than opening one observe after which one other simply to toggle between them, a Markdown hyperlink lets me soar 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 due to the Markdown hyperlinks. That is confirmed after I use one of many many options that NotebookLM affords to assist individuals research 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 right now and threw them into NotebookLM’s Thoughts Map. It mapped out all of my notes, exhibiting how they’re linked and find out how to greatest navigate by 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 subjects that it may be powerful to maintain observe of every little thing.

Granted, I do not at all times put every little thing into Obsidian. However I do ceaselessly 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 device, 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 net. Since NotebookLM makes use of no matter I present as its supply materials, it could actually pull the solutions I want straight from my analysis.

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

I can ask inquiries to remind me concerning the matter

I do a lot in Obsidian to maintain observe of every little thing occurring 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 completely 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 broaden what I’ve written and benefit from its big selection of options. Maintaining 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 look 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.