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This article is republished with permission from Wonder Tools, a newsletter that helps you discover the most useful sites and apps. NotebookLM is the most useful free AI tool of 2025. It has twin superpowers. You can use it to find, analyze, and search through a collection of documents, notes, links, or files. You can then use NotebookLM to visualize your material as a slide deck, infographic, report even an audio or video summary.Subscribe How to set up a notebook Pick a purpose. Start a new notebook for a work project or a learning goal. Examples: I created a notebook to organize materials for the new online bilingual MA program were developing at the CUNY Newmark Grad School of Journalism where I work. I also set up a notebook to learn more about Gustav Mahler, a composer I revere. I have numerous others for work and personal projects. Find sources for your notebook. NotebookLM recently added a search panel to help you discover high-quality sources. You decide which, if any, of the suggested materials to add to your notebook. The Fast Research is quick and focused, unlike a generic Google search that returns hundreds of results, some of which have gamed the search engine system. Fast Research surfaces 10 or so documents related to your topic in less than 30 seconds. You can ask it to find sources within your Google Drive, or from the Web. The Deep Research prompt option in the same panel will more slowly gather many more sources. Tip: make your query as specific as possible to surface relevant, useful sources. Heres an example of a concise, precise query I used. Add your own materials. Upload files up to 200 MB and 500,000 words into your notebook. You can add: Google Docs, Slides, and Sheets PDFs, images (including photos of your handwritten notes), and Microsoft Word documents YouTube links and audio, image, or video files (it extracts the transcript) Website URLs (it extracts the text) No other AI tool Ive used lets you compile as many different kinds of materials in a centralized AI workspace thats easy to explore and build with. Free accounts can create up to 100 notebooks, with 50 sources in each. On a free plan, you may run into limits when creating multimedia materials. You can run free 10 Deep Research queries a month. Students in the U.S. 18 or older can get pro access for free. Pro accounts, which cost $20/month as part of Google AI Pro, can host 500 notebooks with 300 sources in each. They can run 20 Deep Research queries a day. Collaborate and share NotebookLM now lets you collaborate as you would with Google Docs. You can choose to invite people as viewers or editors. Give them a full view of your sources and notes, or limit their access to the search/chat interface. You can also publish notebooks publicly. Here are some examples: Trends in health, wealth and happiness by Our World in Data How to build a life, from The Atlantic Shakespeares Complete Plays Parenting Advice for the Digital Age, by Jacqueline Nesi, PhD of Techno Sapiens Earnings Reports for the Worlds 50 Biggest Companies Secrets of the Super Agers by Eric Topol Explore your materials As you add materials, NotebookLM analyzes them and suggests relevant questions. After I uploaded biographical material about Mahler, it suggested search queries based on the source documents about why he converted to Catholicism and what poetry collections inspired him. You can also ask any question on your mind or type in any kind of traditional search query. NotebookLM uses natural language processing to make sense of your documents. When you type in a query, the system understands what youre looking for. When I queried about the death of Mahlers loved ones, I didnt have to mention their names or even their relationship to him NotebookLM understood what I was asking. These exploratory searches are more powerful than old-fashioned keyword searches, which only work if an exact word combination appears in your document. NotebookLM makes it easy to run abstract queries as well, searching for moments of anger or surprise. Tip: target specific sources. You can use the checkboxes next to each source to limit your search to particular documents. This precision is handy when you want to search within a specific report or compare information across just two or three key documents. Visualize information Use the Studio tab to create shareable reports, slides, graphics, and multimedia out of your notebook material. Unlike other AI tools, NotebookLMs creations are grounded in your source documents they dont pull from the Web or generic training data. Because they draw only from your source material, the creations will change as you add more to your notebook, or if you mark only a subset of sources to be used. Create a mind map first to get an overview of the topics covered in a notebook. Then create the following elements to understand and share your material. Infographics Create polished visual summaries. Choose whether you want a landscape, portrait, or square image, and how simple or detailed it should be. Then type in an optional custom prompt to guide the design. You can include instructions about your preferred color palette, target audience, illustration style, and the kinds of numbers or facts to prioritize. I generated this infographic with NotebookLM A caveat: NotebookLM consistently produces clean, readable text. Its mostly accurate, but Ive encountered occasional errors. Heres an example: Mahlers age of death is wrong at the bottom of this NotebookLM infographic. Slide decks NotebookLMs newest capability generating slide decks continues to surprise me. When I ask it to make slides summing up notebook material it comes up with outstanding results, like this slide deck about Mahler. You can choose between detailed standalone slides, or simpler TED-style presenter slides meant to accompany a verbal presentation. As with the infographic tool, you can just press the slide deck button to let NotebookLM decide what to generate. But youll get something more relevant to you if you write a prompt to guide the visual style and subject matter focus. The slides include a small NotebookLM watermark in the bottom right corner. Below is an example of a slide deck about NotebookLM I created with NotebookLM. A caveat: In my testing, the slides have been clean and visually engaging. Theyre not perfect, though. A deck about our new bilingual journalism program, for example, included misleading AI-generated images of our faculty members. Video overviews Create a video summary of the material in your notebook. Think of it as an AI-narrated slide show. Fortunately, theres no talking avatar. I like how these videos include facts, examples, quotes, and images pulled directly from your source documents. Choose between a brief video (1-2 minutes) or a longer explainer (often six to 10 minutes). You cant specify the exact length. Tailor the approach to your viewers with a prompt. You can even specify a specific audience, whether board members of a charity youre presenting to, or grandchildren new to your subject matter. Videos can take five to 10 minutes to generate. Free accounts can generate only a few videos, slide decks, or infographics per notebook before hitting a usage limit. When your video or other creation is ready, you can download and share it, or view it within your notebook. Heres a video overview of NotebookLM I created with NotebookLM Podcasts NotebookLMs audio overviews became Internet famous for their remarkably human-sounding conversations. When I played a clip for a group of students when this feature launched, they didnt realize the speakers werent human. Example: Heres a new Deep Dive audio piece I generated about NotebookLM for this post. You can write a brief or detailed prompt to guide the style of the audio, and you can choose from multiple formats. After a few minutes, the audio file is ready for you to download and share. Tip: add an AI-generated label to this kind of audio or any other material you create with NotebookLM. That way people will know where it came from and wont assume you created each detail from scratch. You can generate audio pieces from a subset of your documents or your full collection of sources. Here are the four kinds of audio you can generate, with an example of each: Debate. Heres an audio debate I prompted NotebookLM to create about which of its features are most useful. Critique. Heres a critique of NotebookLM I generated from 19 sources I added. Brief summary. Heres a 90-second audio overview. Deep dive. Heres a deep dive NotebookLM explainer. You can now customize the audio overviews you generate with NotebookLM Text reports In addition to multimedia, you can generate custom reports. The reports tend to be around 2,000 to 3,000 words, or six to 12 pages. Here are example reports generated by NotebookLM: an advanced guide to NotebookLM and a guide to integrating NotebookLM in a newsroom. Ive found the dozens of reports Ive generated to be thorough enough to be useful for reference or learning. They also help point to sources worth exploring further. Try prompting NotebookLM to create the following kinds of reports: Timelines: Organize chronological information FAQs: Common questions and answers about your topic Explainers: Break down complex concepts Teaching guides: Useful if youre an educator or lead workshops Student handbooks: Supplemental resources Critiques: Analysis of weaknesses or limitations in your sources Debate reports: Multiple perspectives on controversial topics Flashcards and quizzes When learning something new, create flashcards or quizzes with multiple-choice questions to test yourself. Describe your level of understanding (e.g. Im new to this, or Im a professional in this field, but Im new to this framework,). Choose whether you want small or large numer of questions or flashcards. Specify concepts you want the quiz or flashcards to focus on. You can also ask NotebookLM to focus on a particular source, like a certain link, PDF, or video youve uploaded. Example: Check out my NotebookLM flashcards. 5 Projects to Try 1. Organize a work project Each time you add a file, NotebookLM summarizes it. Its full text is then searchable with citations, so you know youre not getting AI hallucinations. To assemble a useful notebook, gather relevant documents, including: Plans, internal reports, or project memos Links to relevant sites Meeting recordings or transcripts Important emails copied and pasted or saved as PDFs or docs Background reports, company manuals, or competitive research Use your project notebook to: Create summary reports or timelines to onboard new team members Draft slide decks for internal meetings Make infographics to visually summarize complex processes or workflows Quickly find relevant quotes, stats, anecdotes, or examples Refresh your memory when returning to the project later on 2. Plan a trip I create travel notebooks to help me find relevant family activities and ideas for outings. Ive done this before with Perplexity and other AI platforms, but I like the way NotebookLM lets me gather so many different kinds of inputs: links, videos, articles, and local guideseverything I might want to reference when planning weekend activities or hosting visitors. You can find these kinds of resources with a Google or Perplexity search, or do the whole process within NotebookLM. For travel planning, compile these materials: Historical and cultural information Entertainment guides and reviews Restaurant recommendations Local blog posts, event listings, or links to top attractions Then ask NotebookLM to generate: Itineraries FAQs about your destination Recommendations based on your budget or other constraints Slide decks or infographics to share with your travel companions Flashcards for learning key phrases if youre traveling abroad Quiz games to play at the airport while waiting in line 3. Learn something Heres a meta use-case: I created a notebook about NotebookLM to help me learn about its nooks and crannies. (Try the quiz about NotebookLM it created for me.) I made another one about deliberative dialogue to learn more about tactics for encouraging civil discourse between people who violently disagree. NotebookLM generated this detailed infographic based on 19 sources To build a learning notebook: Upload relevant YouTube videos, articles, and course materials. Use the Add Sources panel to add docs from your Google Drive or the Web. Generate mind maps, quizzes, and flashcards to test your understanding. Create audio guides to learn while exercising, cleaning, or commuting. Prompt for timelines, FAQs, explainers, infographics, and slide decks tailored to your knowledge level and learning goals. Tip: break large documents into smaller pieces NotebookLM uses retrieval augmented generation (RAG) for search. That keeps it grounded in your material and avoids hallucination. But it also means that when asked to quickly search gigantic documents, NotebookLM may have the capacity to scour only a subset of your source material. To avoid searches that miss important material, consider breaking enormous documents into smaller pieces and narrowing your searches to specific sources or more precise subjects. 4. Compile reference guides Build notebooks to help you handle recurring tasks. Grant writing. Compile successful applications, guidelines, or evaluation criteria. Social posts. Gather style guides, brand guidelines, and examples of past posts that have worked well for you or competitors. Technical documentation. Assemble specs, organizational rules, or industry best practices. Customer research. Add past surveys, interview transcripts, analytics reports, or testimonials. Tip: as a first step, strip names and emails from surveys or interviews to protect respondents privacy. 5. Manage home projects Create notebooks for life outside of work. NotebookLM is great for this because unlike other AI tools, it lets you input so many different kinds of sources with huge file sizes, whether you have videos, audio files, PDFs, your own handwritten notes, links to various sites, or Google Drive files. Recipe collections and guides to various cooking techniques Home improvement projects with how-to articles and product reviews Hobby research for woodworking, guitar, photography, or gardening Why NotebookLM stands out Unlike AI assistants designed around an open-ended chat box, NotebookLM is structured around a more familiar paradigm: a searchable notebook. The closest parallels are Claude Projects or ChatGPT Projects, which allow you to organize documents in a folder that can inform AI queries on those services. Perplexity Spaces is also useful for organizing related search threads. But none of those can generate NotebookLMs full range of outputs, and each draws on its own training data as well as your sources. NotebookLMs citation system means you can trust its search results, because you can see the cited section in your original document. And its unique in being able to generate everything from audio and video to reports, slides and infographics from your source materials. Note: Citations arent provided within infographics, slide decks, video or audio overviews. If there are tidbits from those you want to trace back to a source, summarize the fact or detail in question in NotebookLMs explore tab the chat window to ask for a citation. The free tier is powerful enough for most people. And it keeps improving, adding significant new capabilities every couple of months. The bottom line: if I were forced to recommend a single AI tool for many different kinds of readers, Id pick NotebookLM. This article is republished with permission from Wonder Tools, a newsletter that helps you discover the most useful sites and apps.
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E-Commerce
Nearly all corporate workers face mental health challenges at work. And in 2025, unprecedented, lightning-fast developments in AI, unending widespread layoffs and broader political turmoil roiled workers emotional well-being. Many workers have been left burned out, anxious, and filled with dread. But its not all badin some corners of the workforce, each seismic disruption this year brought with it discourse around the problem, as well as some leaders and workers staying committed to safeguarding mental health in the face of constant change. Here are five ways workplace trends affected our mental health this year. Layoff dread and fatigue Perhaps the dominant headline in 2025 when it comes to the workforce was the story of layoffs. As we close out the year, over 1.1 million Americans have lost their jobs, though the actual number could be even much higher. The government and tech sectors were especially hit hardparticularly by cuts from Elon Musks Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and redundancies that (may or may not) be due to AI, respectively. But major industries across the board have been affected, as 2025 tallied the most layoffs since the pandemic in 2020. These seemingly unending, so-called forever layoffs have wrecked workers mental health: losing work is one of the most traumatic experiences someone can experience, and can even lead to physical illness. More than a third of leaders say they feel mentally unprepared to deal with leadership responsibilities in this environment. Plus, living amid constant uncertainty is bad for efficiency (and a companys bottom line) as it struggles to survive. In 2026, firms need to handle layoffs compassionately, leaders need to keep team morale up, and higher-ups need to ensure their workplaces are ones conducive to good mental health. Riding the AI wave In 2025, AI moved at breakneck speed from a vague abstraction to the typical worker to something very real, being used every day in 88% of businesses, according to McKinsey, fundamentally changing the way business is done. Workers have reported feeling overwhelmed and as though theyre already behind: a LinkedIn survey found that 40% of workers feel like they cant keep up with the pace of AI development, and public opinion polls uncover a quite negative, worrisome view of AI. But its not all bad. The meteoric rise of the game-changing technology has also seen a rise in curiosity in workers, as well as a willingness to learn and to adapt. AI has also started playing a prominent role in mental health support for many: a third of Gen Z says theyve confided in chatbots over humans, leading to growing concern among some commentators and experts. Emotional intelligence matters. A lot. But despite the rise of the proverbial robot overlord, a lot of workplace discussion in 2025 revolved around the importance of emotional intelligence. With so much economic and political upheaval around the world, workers bring that anxiety and distress into their professional lives, necessitating the importance of emotional intelligence (among leaders especially) in the workplace: it helps us manage triggers, sustain relationships, and develop coping strategies. Luckily, there are many ways to improve emotional intelligence: learning how to embrace and regulate your emotions, staying present and prioritizing experiences over things, and discovering ways to tap into your empathy and self-awareness. Itll improve your mental health (and the mental health of those around you, too). Workplaces remain toxic Despite increased interest in emotional intelligence, companies continue to lay people off en masse over Zoom or email, work-life balance at many places is worse than ever (with some firms pushing for 72-hour weeks), and narcissism thats baked into company structure runs rampant. Not to mention DEI safeguards continue to be stripped and tougher immigration policies in the US have led to more brain drain for companies and abrupt uncertainty for foreign workers lives and livelihoods. Eighty percent of workers said their workplace was toxic this yearan increase from 64% in 2024, according to Monster. While many of these issues are systemic and macro, intertwined with broader political and economic forces, there are still things individual workers cn try to do to remain emotionally and mentally safer in toxic workplaces in 2026 to address at least some of these problems. Psychologists say folks can get better at spotting a toxic person from a mile away, for example, and figuring out how to best engage HR if need be. But the onus is on leaders to set the tone and enact meaningful changeespecially as forces like AI just keep disrupting work culture more and more. Workers prioritizing their well-being above all But despite all the challenges, mental health awareness at work continues to rise, and progress has been made in some areas. New data shows that, while not perfect or always effective, most employers offer mental health care and benefits like therapy to their workers. A push for more neurodiversity-friendly workplaces has also gotten stronger and more visible, and inclusivity-minded leaders remain more committed to DEI than ever. Plus, more workers seem to prioritize their mental health over the rat race. More are rejecting rise-and-grind culture; Gen Z is especially turning to solopreneurship and side gigs over inflexible full-time work and opting out of the climb toward fancy titles. New data also showed that more workers are willing to quit if their bosses dont allow hybrid or remote work. In the end, prioritizing mindfulness and staying in the present, as well as relishing simple joys, remains a proven way to stay emotionally solid . . . especially when the world around you feels anything but.
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E-Commerce
Every January, millions of people set ambitious New Years resolutions. They do this with genuine enthusiasm, hoping to transform their lives. Yet research indicates that by January 8th, just one week into the year, a quarter of these resolutions have already failed. By the end of the year, most individuals return to their familiar patterns, and the promises they made to themselves are often abandoned. My life doesn’t permit me the luxury of being part of that statistic. I operate at the intersection of three distinct and demanding identities: a PhD scholar at Oxford researching outer space financing, the founder of a career advancement platform called Network Capital, and a father to a one-year-old. This combination creates a specific set of constraints. I do not have the luxury of surplus time, nor do I have the capacity for wasted effort. New Year’s resolutions fail not because of a lack of intention or ambition. The problem is that behavioral change is tough when you are already maximizing your cognitive load. Standard resolutions set us up for failure by demanding too much, too fast, without a realistic road map for execution. Fortunately, there is a clearer path. By viewing personal change through the analytical lens of a founder and a researcher, I have shifted my focus away from resolutions entirely. Instead, I rely on operational protocols. The Resource Constraints of Willpower The first critical realization is that willpower is a finite resource. In the business world, we understand that a company cannot scale solely on the heroic efforts of a founder; it requires scalable systems. The same logic applies to personal performance. When I have been awake since the early morning hours with a child, my reserve of willpower is depleted by midday. If a resolution depends on my feeling motivated to write or exercise, I will likely fail. Consequently, I have adopted the concept of marginal gains. Popularized by James Clear in Atomic Habits, this approach rejects the requirement for massive, immediate overhauls. Instead of attempting to change everything simultaneously, the focus shifts to becoming just one percent better each day. Psychologist Amy Cuddy refers to this as “self-nudging,” which involves setting small, manageable goals rather than overwhelming ones. In the context of my PhD, I do not resolve to finish an entire chapter in a sitting. I commit to writing one clear paragraph per day. For my physical health, I do not commit to an hourlong workout. I commit to five minutes of movement. In my role as a father, I do not aim for perfection. I commit to an hour of undivided interaction with my daughter. These smaller commitments work because they are sustainable even during periods of high stress. They compound over time, creating a trajectory of success that relies on consistency rather than intensity. Engineering the Environment As a founder, I spend considerable time optimizing workflows to reduce friction. I realized I needed to apply this same logic to my daily life. Strategies that rely on memory or discipline are fragile; strategies that rely on environmental design are robust. Multitasking behavioral change is generally ineffective. To manage the conflicting demands of fatherhood, academic research, and business leadership, I must engineer my environment to force focus. The cost of context switching is high; it takes significant time to refocus after an interruption. When I am in a specific location on campus, I am a researcher. In that space, I do not check corporate communication channels. When I enter my home, I place my phone in a separate room. This simple environmental constraint ensures that I am present for my child. I make the correct choice, the default choice, by removing the option for distraction. The Data-Driven Review The final component of this approach is drawn from Tim Ferriss. Rather than looking forward with vague aspirations, I conduct a “Past Year Review.” This process is analytical and grounded in actual performance data. I create two columns labeled “Positive” and “Negative.” I then review my calendar from the previous year, week by week. I note the people, activities, and commitments that produced the strongest results in each category. As a student and founder, this audit provides necessary clarity. I often find that certain recurring meetings drain energy without adding value to the company. I find that specific research areas were intellectually interesting but irrelevant to my thesis. Conversely, I see that specific, consistent blocks of time with my family provided the highest return on emotional investment. Once the data is collected, I apply the 80/20 principle. I identify which 20% of activities in the positive column produced the most significant results. Then, I take immediate action. I schedule more of those experiences into the calendar for the upcoming year immediately. Simultaneously, I create a “Not-to-Do” list derived from the negative column. This acts as a filter. It allows me to remove obligations that do not serve my family, my degree, or my company. The Path Forward Whether you are balancing a portfolio of careers, raising a family, or pursuing a degree, the principle remains consistent. Sustainable change does not result from a burst of enthusiasm in January. It results from small, consistent actions aligned with your actual capacity and values. We often assume that to achieve significant goals, such as building a company or earning a doctorate, we need to be rigid with ourselves. We believe we need punishing resolutions. However, when you are already operating under pressure, rigidity leads to breaking points. This year, I am not making a resolution to be a better father, a smarter student, or a more successful founder. I am simply building a system that facilitates those outcomes. I am optimizing for the one micro-improvement a day. I am trusting the protocol. Progress creates the fuel we lack. We secure the future by optimizing the present moment. For the overcommitted, this protocol offers a necessary operating system. It changes the goal from overnight transformation to sustainable high performance.
Category:
E-Commerce
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