Many productivity apps can technically handle my entire workflow pipeline - note-taking, linking, organizing, filtering, and some extras like images and AI assistance. AFFiNE is kind of like my second brain, Obsidian is great for handling deep research, Google Docs for drafting, and the list goes on. The problem is, a lot of these tools are either really good at only one thing, or, if they are multi-tools, they usually lack a couple of functions that stop them from replacing the rest of the stack.

After trying to replace my PKM system with NotebookLM, I realized that it’s way more capable than I originally thought - it ended up being far more useful beyond the obvious reading and summarizing cases. Notion also quietly disappeared from my rotation because NotebookLM handles the same tasks in fewer steps. So how much can NotebookLM actually replace real-life tasks and workflows?

Mind mapping

This one’s a no-brainer

If you’re a NotebookLM user, you’ve probably played with its Mind Map feature by now. As both a visual thinker and novice designer, I used to rely heavily on dedicated diagramming tools for mind mapping. However, the more I started using NotebookLM, the less I reached for my go-to mind mapping tools like Mermaid. And that’s likely because NotebookLM simply has a more robust mind mapping tool.

Mind mapping shows up in many parts of my work - in my case, it’s part of my UX design courses. You need to collect user research and map out user flows, journeys, personas, and so on. But even beyond studying, mind mapping is one of the fastest ways to compress large amounts of information or get quick visual overviews.

NotebookLM handles this better than any other tool I’ve tried. The accuracy of the map generation is part of it, but the real power is in that the maps are interactive. Clicking the arrows expands each branch into the next layer of concepts, and it keeps going, so you’re not just staring at a static diagram. And clicking the branches directs you to the chat panel where you can dive deeper into the topic.

YouTube learning

No need for long-winded manual note-taking or linking

One of the best uses I’ve probably gotten out of NotebookLM is by creating a YouTube knowledge base for learning. YouTube is a big part of my learning, since it has so many free tutorials, lectures, and even courses. But since I tend to forget what I had watched rather quickly, taking notes while watching is pretty crucial. My go-to options here used to be Notion, and still sometimes Obsidian. Both also let you build out pages with reference hubs, where I could embed the YouTube videos alongside my notes.

However, doing all of this in NotebookLM is so much faster and easier. One of NotebookLM’s most famous functionalities is its ability to analyze YouTube transcripts. This basically lets it treat the videos as documents, from which you can extract key points, get summaries, and all the other stuff you’d normally do with NotebookLM. It also lets you play the videos directly within the left panel.

So I watch on the left, chat with the AI in the middle to help me synthesize and condense the information, and take notes on the right-side panel, all at the same time. This eliminated pretty much my entire YouTube workflow in other PKM apps. A more perfect system for YouTube learning doesn’t exist - except Gistr, perhaps.

Progress tracking

NotebookLM generates tables for you

One of the best uses for dedicated productivity tools like Notion is that you can create highly detailed tables to track projects, tasks, and anything else. Toggl Track is also an excellent tool for getting an overview of your time spent doing certain tasks. However, NotebookLM speeds up these processes, once again.

Unfortunately, NotebookLM has ditched its dedicated timeline feature, but you can still prompt it to give you detailed, timeline-style overviews in table format. All I have to do is give it the relevant sources that pertain to the thing I want to keep track of, and it will reflect my progress back at me. Plus, it can also give me some tips for how to speed things up or reveal which areas of my work/life are lacking.

Document sorting and organizing

Prompts can act as global search features or filters

NotebookLM’s whole thing is focused on information retrieval for learning and research. Since I like using apps off-label beyond their intended purpose, I figured why not use that same capability to help untangle my messy documents? It’s not an automated process, but it works. My weak spot is in naming files properly, which is a manual job no matter which app I’m in.

So I’ll drop all my weekly text docs, research, or whatever I’m working with into a fresh notebook. Then I simply prompt NotebookLM to tell me which sources fall into which category, or to even sort them for me in a table format. Once I have that breakdown, I can name and organize those docs outside of NotebookLM with way more accuracy, and also quicker than I could have done it on my own.

NotebookLM replaces a big chunk of my productivity stack

I don’t think NotebookLM was built to replace productivity or PKM tools. But that’s what ended up happening for me. Sure, it doesn’t have calendars or databases, but it streamlines so many other tasks and workflows I used to rely on other apps for; for example, Mind Maps alone cut out three different diagramming tools for me, and you don't need complex backlinking systems when you've got sources and prompts. The more I use NotebookLM, the more I catch myself reaching for it before anything else.