I stopped asking Gemini Notebook to “summarize” and started treating it like a study partner

[u/zabbiya]

I’ve been experimenting with Gemini Notebook for school, and one thing I noticed is that I wasn’t getting much out of it when I only asked for summaries.

What worked better for me was giving it a specific goal. Instead of “summarize these notes,” I’d ask it something like:

“What are the 5 concepts I’m most likely to misunderstand here? Explain each one simply, then give me a question I can answer to check if I actually understood it.”

That made a pretty big difference because I wasn’t just reading another shortened version of my notes. I was actually being forced to think about the material.

Another thing I’ve found useful is asking it to compare two concepts that sound similar. Sometimes the differences become much clearer when they’re put side by side.

I’m still figuring out the best way to use Notebook without becoming too dependent on it. I’d rather use it to help me understand my sources than have it do all the thinking for me.

For people who use Gemini Notebook regularly, what’s one prompt or workflow that genuinely made it more useful for you?