Of all the AI tools currently available I use Google’s NotebookLM the most. My best way to describe NotebookLM is that one can use it to apply Google’s Large Language Models toward a topic based on sources for information that one provides. For example, when we were researching health insurance plans last fall I created a notebook in NotebookLM and uploaded to it as sources PDFs provided by the insurance providers. I then used the chat in the notebook to ask questions about the different plans, which I then saved for future reference.

I have a 2013 GMC Terrain and a few years past I learned that this make and model SUV has a history of burning oil, so I have been diligently checking the oil level once a week and after long drives during trips. I log the date, odometer reading, and oil level in a note in Google Keep using my phone and I wish Gemini were integrated in Keep so that I could directly ask questions like how many miles have been driven and when is the last time I added oil.

Google has not added Keep as a source for NotebookLM, which I think would be logical, but what I can do is send (export) a note in Keep to a Google Doc which I can then add as source for NotebookLM. Today I exported each of my three log notes to a Google Doc, created a notebook in NotebookLM and add these docs as sources. NotebookLM correctly identified the sources as a maintenance log for a vehicle but it didn’t know which type of vehicle nor did it know the year the entries started because I only recorded the month and date. I created a README note that I added as a source in which I specified that the first date was in 2024 and that the logs are for a 2013 GMC Terrain. I also added some information about the dipstick markings.

With the oil logs in NotebookLM I am able to ask simple questions like, how many miles were driven between the last oil check and the prior check? I asked NotebookLM how many miles were driven in 2025, and it then offered to make an infographic that broke down the 2025 mileage by month. NotebookLM also created a detailed vehicle usage and oil consumption analysis report.

NotebookLM provides me with a simple and powerful way to analyze this data, but the fact that Google Keep cannot be a source means that as I update the current log note I will have to re-export it to the Google Doc and refresh that doc source in NotebookLM. I hope that in the future Google will add Keep as a source to either Gemini on my phone or to NotebookLM.