Andy Walker / Android Authority
I consider myself a generative AI skeptic, with my initial interest in the technology turning into frustration and distrust. But there’s one tool that has genuinely impressed me over the past few months: NotebookLM.
Its power lies in the ability for you to set custom sources that the service’s chatbot draws information from — leading to better quality responses compared with many of the other tools I’ve experimented with.
Most people dismiss NotebookLM as a tool for students, but there are plenty of niche use cases for it. In fact, here are some of the unique ways I’ve incorporated it into my life.
Have you tried NotebookLM for daily tasks and projects? 14 votes No. 79 % Yes (Let us know in the comments). 21 %
1. Summarizing health info for family and friends
Megan Ellis / Android Authority
If you’ve followed my work, you’ll know that I deal with a variety of chronic health issues, including fibromyalgia and chronic migraine. One of my frustrations with talking about my health with people I know is that complex disorders aren’t the easiest topics to grasp if you’ve never dealt with them. Besides the prevalence of pseudoscience and misconceptions about chronic conditions, many people don’t go much further than AI Overviews or Facebook posts when trying to learn about them.
NotebookLM can be useful in providing reliable information that is easy to understand. Audio and video overviews, in particular, pack a lot of information into a simple format. I’ve even generated an audio overview in another language for people who don’t speak English as their native language.
NotebookLM lets me generate easy-to-digest information using reliable sources.
My notebooks related to fibromyalgia and chronic migraines use reputable sources, as well as peer-reviewed studies. As such, I know that the information is up-to-date and accurate. I also review the information that the AI presents in responses and generated media before sharing it with others. So far, I’ve found the tool provides reliable information. In fact, it has surprised me a few times by including insights that relate to my lived experience — such as the difficulty of balancing exercise with pain levels.
The main drawback I’ve noticed is that even if you customize the prompts for generating media summaries, the output is very similar. But I’m hoping that as I come across new information, I can add it to my NotebookLM sources to keep the responses as well-rounded as possible.
2. Tailored workout suggestions
Megan Ellis / Android Authority
What started as an experiment ended up actually providing useful resources. I wanted to see if NotebookLM could use the context of my health issues, as well as sources that provide exercises and stretches aimed at people like me, to provide routines that could adjust to my energy and pain levels.
There are plenty of YouTube videos and articles that provide routines for people with chronic pain, but they often overlap and aren’t easy to quickly reference when you’re experiencing a flare up in a specific group of muscles. They also don’t adapt to how you’re feeling that day. Some days I can walk for 30 minutes without that many symptoms, other days simply lying on a foam roller and doing a static stretch is too much to bear.
NotebookLM is able to adapt my exercise recommendations to how I'm feeling that day, which ordinary videos and articles can't do.
But with NotebookLM, I can add context to my prompts to get the ideal recommendations. For example, I’ve been experiencing more neck pain than usual. When a particular area is flaring up, I can ask the AI to provide me with a few exercises I can use to relax those muscles.
Some days, I will give the AI a time period for exercises. So if I want to spend 10 minutes doing gentle exercises, the AI can recommend which exercises to do and how long each is allocated.
The solution isn’t perfect, since the citations don’t provide timestamps for YouTube videos or screenshots that show the exercises. However, I can always search for the name of a particular exercise or yoga pose if the description isn’t enough for me to figure it out.
3. Gaming guides
Megan Ellis / Android Authority
NotebookLM can improve your productivity, but this doesn’t mean it’s all business and no fun. Gaming is one of my favorite hobbies and for the past few months I’ve been particularly invested in playing Ark: Survival Evolved. The survival game includes dozens of creatures that you can tame, with some having very unique taming methods. I’ve spent hours trawling online forums, wiki posts, and YouTube videos trying to find tips for different tames.
But over time, the many open tabs in my browser can become frustrating to deal with. I also sometimes miss information when scanning through long videos or wiki articles.
I can easily deep dive into certain gaming guides using NotebookLM.
However, using NotebookLM for certain taming guides has made the venture easier, especially when it comes to more complicated creatures like the phoenix. By combining a variety of sources, I can quiz the AI on specific aspects and tips. For example, I discovered that I can possibly use two other creatures in the game to make the phoenix easier to find.
There are times that a quick peek at the wiki or a Reddit thread will give me all the information I need. But for more complex guides that pull from a variety of sources, NotebookLM has been a great way to summarize information.
4. Getting outlines for tech projects
Megan Ellis / Android Authority
Earlier this year, I started self-hosting different services; first on my main PC and then on my NAS. This has involved a lot of research — and yet there’s still so much for me to learn. This is especially true when it comes to different hardware, since different tools are best suited for certain use cases and sometimes have certain weaknesses.
Luckily, using NotebookLM has made this information easier to organize while still pulling from different sources. For example, I created a notebook related to setting up a Raspberry Pi to help me figure out all the steps involved. I also created one related to PC building, which can pull information from different guides. The information becomes easier to break down and structure using the mind map tool.
The mind map tool breaks down complex projects into structured content I can explore at my own pace.
Don’t get me wrong, I still spend hours reading different guides and documentation, as well as plenty of Reddit posts about different topics. However, NotebookLM has saved me time when I want to get a quick overview of basic concepts or decide whether a project is right for me.
Over time, NotebookLM has continued to impress me far more than any other AI tool. It isn’t perfect, but the active rollout of new features gives me hope that it will only become more capable over time. If you thought the tool was only for students, it might be time to see if it has any potential uses for your daily tasks and projects. I just hope that Google also improves the NotebookLM Android app, which is a lot less intuitive than the web version.
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