NotebookLM is great, but it shines when you use it like this

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There aren’t a lot of productivity tools I use every single day beyond the basics: Google Calendar, Google Tasks, Notion, and the usual Asana/Trello setup for work. But one AI product that has actually stuck around for me is Google’s NotebookLM. Its premium tier is included with my Google plan, and it's packed with all the right features I look for in a tool.While I've refined my NotebookLM setup over the years, one thing I've realized is that NotebookLM isn’t a full all-in-one solution. On its own, it's incredibly powerful, but it still has blind spots. That’s why pairing it with the right tools creates a workflow that’s way smoother and far more practical than relying on NotebookLM alone.

NotebookLM works better with the right tools beside it

Push NotebookLM beyond its limits

Credit: Tashreef Shareef / MakeUseOf

If you haven’t used NotebookLM a whole lot, let me give you a quick rundown. NotebookLM is an AI research tool by Google, and what makes it so special is it lets you create self-contained notebooks filled with the exact sources you want them to use.

Each notebook is its own little ecosystem, completely separate from anything else you’ve added, so whatever you upload becomes the only material it relies on for summaries, answers, and everything it generates. While this is excellent, and it's the reason why I rely so much on NotebookLM, it's also the cause of a lot of NotebookLM’s limitations. For example, you can’t cross-reference notebooks because each one is siloed. You can’t pull in outside context or merge sources unless you manually move things around yourself.  But beyond these limitations that are part of NotebookLM’s core identity, the tool also has a bunch of smaller gaps. You can’t really use it as a note-taking app, it’s not great for organizing thoughts long-term, and it isn’t built for daily planning or tracking anything outside the notebook you’re currently working in. And honestly, it’s unlikely Google will add these kinds of features anytime soon — doing so would change what NotebookLM is fundamentally meant to be.

So instead of sitting around waiting for NotebookLM to turn into something it’s not, the best way to get more out of it is to pair it with third-party tools that complement what it already does well.

I pair NotebookLM with other AI tools to fill the gaps

Gemini, ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, etc

As I mentioned above, Google’s NotebookLM is designed to work exclusively with the sources you upload to a notebook. That means if you need extra context, want real-time updates, or just need a second perspective, NotebookLM can’t provide it on its own. That's where pairing it with other AI chatbots like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, and Gemini comes in.

In general, there isn't a special workflow I follow to pair NotebookLM with an AI chatbot. I use NotebookLM as a central repository where I actually do all my learning, and turn to an AI chatbot to fetch information in real-time and essentially go beyond what my sources already offer. I also turn to these chatbots to help me find new high-quality sources to add to my notebooks. This is something I find Perplexity particularly good at — its ability to pull in up-to-date information and link directly to sources makes discovering new material fast and reliable. Personally, Gemini is my favorite tool to pair with NotebookLM. Given that it's a Google product, it fits naturally into my workflow and complements NotebookLM’s strengths without feeling redundant. The tech giant recently pushed out an upgrade that sort of brings NotebookLM into Gemini by letting you upload any notebooks you've created into a Gemini thread.

You can upload multiple NotebookLM notebooks and effectively cross-reference all of them, letting you see connections, compare sources, and synthesize information in ways that NotebookLM alone doesn’t allow. It turns what were previously isolated notebooks into a more dynamic, interconnected research workflow.

Given that Gemini can pull context from the web as well as its training data (unlike NotebookLM), you can also use it to find new sources and fresh context, all while using your notebook's content as a base.

NotebookLM works better with note-taking and PKM tools

Notion, Obsidian, Apple Notes, Evernote, etc

Credit: Tashreef Shareef / MakeUseOf

NotebookLM is great at understanding and summarizing your sources, but on its own, it’s not really built for long-term organization or for turning raw insights into something you can actually act on. It has absolutely no organizational features at the time of writing, and proper note-taking features are limited (beyond the Notes option in the Studio panel). So, I pair NotebookLM with note-taking and PKM tools like Notion and Obsidian. For example, I'll often take summaries and questions generated in NotebookLM and drop them into my PKM system.

bigger projects from smaller notes. It turns NotebookLM from a passive research hub into an active part of my workflow. This ensures the information I retrieved from NotebookLM is actually used, remembered, and integrated into my larger knowledge system rather than just sitting around!

You're missing out if you aren't using NotebookLM like this

Note-taking and AI chatbots are far from the only tools you can pair NotebookLM with. I've even paired it with tools like Google Tasks, Google Calendar, my time-tracking software, and even full-fledged AI browsers! The best way to go about it is to analyze your current NotebookLM workflow, and try to figure out what you think NotebookLM lacks as a tool. Once you identify the gaps, you can experiment with other apps to fill them!