Module 3 · Files, tools and your own data Lesson 11 of 15
Automate one boring task with NotebookLM
Automation is not about building a system. It is about doing one repetitive job the same way every time, in less time than last time, and being able to do it again next month.
The concept
Pick the task by how often it happens, not by how impressive it would be. A weekly report you can half-generate beats a clever pipeline you build once and never open again.
A weekly notebook update for one subject, with the new week's slides added and a fresh set of questions generated in the same format.. Whatever you choose, write the steps back out in plain English afterwards — "Step 1, open the sheet, Step 2, paste the names —" because the written steps are what you follow when the tool changes next quarter.
And keep a copy of the prompt next to the task. A prompt that lives only in your chat history is a prompt you will rewrite from scratch in March.
Worked example
Ten minutes every Sunday: add the week's slides, ask for ten questions, save the ones you cannot answer yet.
Your practice task
Name the task you repeat most often that involves typing, then write the prompt for it and run it three weeks in a row from the same saved place. Three runs is the point at which you know whether it is genuinely automated.
Do this before moving on. Reading a solution teaches the shape of it; typing it teaches you.
Key takeaway
Pick the task by how often it happens, not by how impressive it would be.
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