Getting The Most Out Of Notes In NotebookLM#
A how-to guide by steven-johnson, co-founder and editorial director of notebooklm, published March 2024. Part of a series on using the Gemini-powered writing and research tool from Google Labs.
Key Takeaways#
- Two note types with clear provenance: Written Notes (user-authored, editable) and Saved Responses (AI-generated or source quotes, immutable). The immutability of Saved Responses is a deliberate design choice for tracking what the human wrote vs. what the AI wrote.
- Pin-then-organize workflow: Have an exploratory conversation with the AI grounded in your sources, pin interesting responses as you go, then revisit and structure later. Brainstorming first, organizing second.
- Reading-integrated note-taking: Selecting text in a source triggers AI actions — Add to Note, Summarize to Note, Help Me Understand, Suggest Related Ideas. The AI enhances the reading process, not just the writing process.
- 5,000-word note query limit: Selected notes exceeding 5,000 words cannot be queried via the chatbox. Workaround: combine all notes into one, then re-add as a source — converting notes into a queryable source.
- Cross-notebook portability: The combine-and-copy pattern lets you move note collections between notebooks by pasting combined notes as a new source.
Design Philosophy#
NotebookLM’s notes system embodies a specific stance on AI-assisted knowledge work: the AI is grounded in user-curated sources (not the open web), conversations are exploratory, and the user captures what matters. This is closer to the llm-wiki-pattern’s “human curates, LLM processes” division of labor than to a general-purpose chatbot.
The provenance separation (editable vs. immutable notes) addresses a problem that context-management strategies in agentic tools also face: knowing the origin and reliability of information in a growing knowledge store.
Limitations Noted#
- 5,000-word ceiling on note queries (workaround provided)
- Saved Responses are not editable (by design, for provenance)
- No native cross-notebook note access (workaround provided)