NotebookLM is already a pretty awesome tool on its own. It transforms messy notes and heavy research into something you can actually understand and interact with. And it explains things in plain language without talking down on you. I have very few complaints. However, NotebookLM doesn’t hit its full potential until you feed it better information or pair it with other apps - and this is where a tool like Readwise comes in.

I’ve shuffled through every productivity app under the sun. Many of them are decent, but I end up treating most of them as a “set it and forget it” system, even though they're designed for regular maintenance. That’s why Readwise is so appealing - it’s minimal and easy to reach for, plus it has tons of integrations that keep everything synced automatically. Once I’m ready to address the piles of reading materials I’ve collected, NotebookLM steps in as my analyzer and learning assistant.

What is Readwise?

The simplest way to track and organize your reading highlights

Readwise started off as a simple web-based tool for managing your Kindle highlights, but it’s grown into one of the most underrated knowledge management apps out there. If you read ebooks, skim articles, or save social media posts, Readwise hoovers all of that in and turns the highlights into resurfacing flashcards.

Readwise itself is pretty featureless and doesn’t have much to it. How it works is that you connect your book apps, productivity apps, or social accounts, and it will sync your saved content. The way it does this will differ from app to app. For example, Kindle will automatically sync your saved highlights to Readwise, while other productivity apps might require you to manually import your data. You can also export your Readwise data to the long list of integrated apps (which includes NotebookLM).

There are only three features in Readwise: the connect/sync function, your library of reading material and their highlights, and a little chatbot. Once you’ve connected your accounts in the connect/sync window, you can start organizing all the materials in your library. Here, you can view the highlights, add tags, edit the metadata, or do local Markdown exports for individual highlights. The chatbot is a nice-to-have; it can pull insights from your materials - but it’s not NotebookLM, which is exactly why I’m pairing them instead.

Another cool thing about Readwise is the Reader app, which is a full-featured reading app connected to your Readwise account, so all your integrations will remain synced. It lets you read the entire material, import PDFs, create highlights, add notes, and more. Those highlights are also automatically reflected in your Readwise library. Reader isn’t necessary for using Readwise or pairing it with NotebookLM, but it’s a very user-friendly reading app that I've been loving.

Setting up Readwise with NotebookLM

It’s just a few clicks

Connecting a Readwise account to NotebookLM is dead simple. All you have to do is go to the connect/sync feature, click Export Highlights, find NotebookLM, and hit Connect. That’s all there is to it. You’ll notice that it doesn’t have the NotebookLM icon but rather the Google Docs one. This is because it actually exports your highlights to Docs. But if you’re a NotebookLM user, you probably already know about its seamless integration with Google Drive. When you add a source in a notebook, you’ll be able to find your Readwise highlights from your Drive within seconds.

There’s also an extension that I highly recommend, Readwise Highlighter, which lets you highlight snippets right in your browser and they automatically sync to your Readwise library.

Putting my Readwise highlights to use with NotebookLM

From reading to learning

If you’re starting from scratch, it won’t take you more than five minutes to set up your Readwise account, sync your apps and materials, and fetch it from NotebookLM. This setup is perfectly designed for my “set it and forget it” working style. I highlight as I read, it automatically syncs to Readwise, which automatically syncs to my Google Docs. This lets me forget about it for the time being, and when I’m ready to get to work in NotebookLM, all of my highlights are ready and waiting.

You can create a separate notebook for your Readwise highlights - this would actually be the perfect opportunity to prompt NotebookLM for meta overviews:

• Summarize my highlights about [book/topic] and compare them with [book/topic]
• What recurring themes show up in my [topic]-related highlights?
• What ideas in my Readwise library connect to [topic you’re currently researching]?

But what I found more useful than the global archive approach was just fetching my highlights directly from the active notebooks I was already working on. In this case, I pulled this particular highlight into my existing design notebook since it’s about a topic I’m currently studying (mental models in UX). It was the perfect addition to my current notes, and let me prompt NotebookLM things like "Show me where my highlights on user psychology align with my own onboarding redesign notes."

Instead of scrolling back through dozens of notes, I’m basically having a conversation with the best parts of everything I’ve ever read. I can study -> then highlight -> it syncs -> and I interact with those highlights whenever I want. To keep this loop going, I also copy some of NotebookLM’s responses into an email and send it straight back to Readwise. Another thing I recommend is combining these Docs into one document - it’s one of my several little NotebookLM tricks to get the most out of it’s limited sources.

A more seamless pairing doesn’t exist

To me, productivity isn’t about having the most or flashiest features, but rather about systems that have the least friction, which is why this pairing is such a powerful combo. There’s almost no labor required for this setup, everything syncs automatically thanks to the Readwise-NotebookLM integration and the Readwise browser extension. Readwise is a great organizer and retainer for snippets and highlights, but NotebookLM turns that passive consumption into something I can actually learn from and put to use, without needing a complicated PKM setup.