Turning Pages into Progress: Building a Second Brain with NotebookLM

I wasn’t always a reader.

In fact, for most of my life, I hated reading.

To me, books were just school assignments and chores to complete, not treasures to enjoy.

That all changed about eight years ago.

At the time, I had just started a new job at an international school in Louzizhuang, one of the more remote areas in northeast Beijing.

My wife (then girlfriend) and I were living on the western side of the city, near her workplace. (literally, it was a two-minute walk.)

While the job offered exciting challenges and a better salary, it also had one significant drawback: the commute.

Every day, I embarked on a journey involving biking, subways, and buses, lasting 70 to 90 minutes each way, dictated by Beijing's unpredictable chaos.

Before you ask, no, I did not suggest we move closer to my job.

I am a lot of things, but selfish isn’t one of them.

Or maybe I was just too scared to suggest it.

Yet, it was this relentless, chaotic commute through Beijing that transformed me into the avid reader I never thought I’d become.

Discovering the Joy of Reading

The first book I picked up was Haruki Murakami’s Norwegian Wood, suggested by a co-worker.

This co-worker was one of the many cherished connections I made in China, and we still talk weekly.

Murakami’s vivid characters and pacing transformed my commute into something I looked forward to every day.

I quickly devoured his entire catalogue of books and found myself on a wild sheep chase for new material to fill my daily reading time.

(Murakami fans will see what I did there.)

Over time, my preferences began to expand.

Fiction started to share space with non-fiction on my shelf, particularly books about psychology, personal growth, and behavioural change.

What began as a way to pass the time became something much more.

Reading became a tool for personal and professional growth,

but it also brought an unexpected challenge.

The Problem of Forgetting

Like many readers, I struggled to retain much of what I read.

I would finish a book feeling inspired, only to find the details fading weeks later.

As my professional life grew, I found myself increasingly frustrated at my inability to recall ideas, strategies, or advice I had read.

The big ideas would stick, but the finer points, those actionable strategies or connections, slipped away too easily.

To address this, I began taking notes.

I researched how other readers retained and applied what they read.

That’s when I came across Ryan Holiday’s note card system.

His approach to capturing and categorizing key insights resonated with me, but I needed a method that fit my world.

I started by highlighting passages, jotting down thoughts in the margins, and flagging pages with sticky notes.

Initially, I transferred these notes to a physical notebook.

It worked, but as the number of books I read grew, the system became harder to manage.

Building a Second Brain

Then, about two years ago, I discovered Tiago Forte’s concept of a “second brain."

Inspired by his methodology, I transitioned my notes to Notion, creating a searchable, structured knowledge hub.

Notion allowed me to link ideas across topics and revisit them whenever I needed.

This approach transformed how I processed books, but it came with one major challenge: it was slow.

Processing a single book could take hours, and the backlog of books I wanted to summarize grew faster than I could manage.

That’s when I discovered NotebookLM.

How NotebookLM Streamlined My Process

NotebookLM has streamlined my process and made it easier to turn my reading into a second brain of easily accessible knowledge.

Here’s how I use it:

Read and Annotate the Book

1. Actively highlight key points, underline important passages, and jot down notes while reading.

   
   

2. Identify themes, questions, or ideas to prioritize in your summaries.

   
   

3. Upload the Book to NotebookLM

If the book is digital, convert it to a supported format like PDF.

For physical books, digitize the sections you want NotebookLM to process.

Upload the formatted file into NotebookLM.

Use NotebookLM to Summarize Chapters

1. Summarize each chapter, focusing on specific themes, takeaways, or concepts.

Example: “Provide a concise overview of Chapter 5, highlighting the main ideas related to [theme].”

2. Extract key quotes for quick reference.

Example: “Find three impactful quotes about [idea] from this chapter.”

Customize and Enrich Notes

1. Add personal reflections, connections to other books, or applications of the insights.

   
   

2. Mark actionable insights for easy reference.

Need help?

Prompt NotebookLM to:

“Highlight connections between this text and the ideas in [another book or resource].”

Transfer Notes to Notion

1. Organize your notes into a structured database with categories like themes, chapter summaries, and quotes.

   
   

2. Use tags and links to create connections between related books and ideas.

Iterate and Expand

1. Periodically revisit your notes to refine them as your understanding grows.

   
   

2. Add new insights when rereading or encountering related material.

Turning Inspiration into Action

What started as a way to survive a long commute has turned into one of the most rewarding parts of my life.

By actively taking notes, organizing my ideas in Notion, and using tools like NotebookLM, I’ve built a system that helps me turn what I read into something practical.

If you find yourself forgetting what you read or struggling to apply it, it might be time to build your own system.

It doesn’t have to be anything complex.

Start simple. Hell, jot down a quote if you read it, and it hits you.

You might be surprised at how much more you take away from each book over time.

I’ll post a video on this exact process in the coming weeks.

Until then, why not try NotebookLM and see how it can transform the way you read and retain ideas?

— G