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Discipline 04 · 3 white, 8 brown, 4 black

NotebookLM Dojo

Ground research in sources you chose, then publish from it. The capstone is a three-notebook intelligence desk with an audited citation trail.

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15 modules · 176 prompts · 101 sourced
White · 3 modulesBrown · 8 modulesBlack · 4 modules
White Belt3 modules68 promptsNot started
Brown Belt8 modules72 promptsNot started
Black Belt4 modules36 promptsNot started
Version 2.0.10·Revised 2026-09-13·Refreshed weekly·35 sources cited
Inventory
Modules15
Prompts176
Prompts sourced101
Sources cited35
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// 01 / The ladder

Fifteen modules

White belt is a notebook whose citations you audited by hand. Black belt is a three-notebook desk with a master index.

White Belt
Fundamentals
Not started
01Up next
What Is NotebookLM and When to Use It
Understand what makes NotebookLM different from ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity, which tier you are actually on, and when it is the right tool for the job.
~45 min (est)25 prompts 23 beginner · 2 intermediate
02
Create Your First Notebook and Add Sources
Build your first notebook properly: execute the charter you wrote in Module 1, load sources across every major format, and learn the limits and failure modes before they cost you a real project.
~50 min (est)30 prompts 28 beginner · 2 intermediate
03
Ask Questions, Read Citations, and Save Notes
Master the chat workflow: ask questions that earn precise answers, audit citations against source passages, and build a notes library that feeds back into your notebook.
~45 min (est)13 prompts 10 beginner · 3 intermediate
Capstone · White BeltKnot open
The Citation Trail
Build your first real notebook and earn the habit that separates NotebookLM users from chatbot users: following every answer back to its evidence. You will assemble mixed sources on a topic you genuinely care about, interrogate them, and audit the citations by hand. The pass bar is not that the notebook exists, it is that you caught the tool being right, or wrong, and can prove which.
  • Create a notebook on a topic you are actively working on or studying, named with a convention you would be happy to keep.
  • Add four sources of at least three different types: for example a PDF, a web URL, pasted text, and a public YouTube video.
  • Ask five questions that force cross-source synthesis, not single-source lookup, and note which sources each answer draws on.
  • Trace three citations back to their exact source passages and grade each: accurate, partially accurate, or misleading.
  • Ask one question your sources cannot answer and confirm the tool declines or hedges rather than inventing an answer.
  • Save your two best responses as notes, then convert one note into a source and verify it appears in the Sources panel.
  • Write a one-paragraph verdict note: where source-grounding beat a general chatbot this week, and where it fell short.
DeliverableA working mixed-source notebook plus a citation audit trail: five cross-source Q&As, three hand-graded citation traces, one out-of-scope refusal test, two saved notes with one converted to a source, and a written verdict on when to trust the tool.
Brown Belt
Advanced
Not started
04
Source Mastery: Upload, Manage, Sync, and Discover
Move from adding sources to running them: scope queries with source toggling, keep Drive snapshots honest, discover new sources without leaving the app, and design notebooks around real limits.
~45 min (est)9 prompts 7 intermediate · 2 advanced
05
Custom Instructions: Control Every Output
Configure NotebookLM's behavior with custom instructions that shape every chat response, report, and audio overview.
~45 min (est)9 prompts 1 beginner · 5 intermediate · 3 advanced
06
Reports and Briefing Docs: Structured Deliverables
Generate polished reports, study guides, FAQs, and timelines from your sources, ready to verify, export, and share.
~45 min (est)9 prompts 6 intermediate · 3 advanced
07
Audio Overviews: Create Podcasts from Your Documents
Generate podcast-style audio discussions from your sources, from quick single-host briefs to deep dives, critiques, and debates steered by custom focus prompts.
~45 min (est)9 prompts 1 beginner · 5 intermediate · 3 advanced
08
Visual Intelligence: Mind Maps, Infographics, and Data Tables
Transform your sources into interactive mind maps, styled infographics, and structured data tables.
~45 min (est)9 prompts 1 beginner · 5 intermediate · 3 advanced
09
Slide Decks and Video Overviews: Presentation Outputs
Turn a notebook into presentation-ready output: AI-generated slide decks with per-slide revisions and PPTX export, plus narrated Video Overviews from everyday explainers to premium cinematic renders.
~45 min (est)9 prompts 5 intermediate · 4 advanced
10
Study Mode: Quizzes, Flashcards, and Active Learning
Turn any notebook into an active-learning system: source-grounded quizzes with cited feedback, a flashcard difficulty ladder, the tutor-style Learning Guide mode, and the Feynman technique.
~45 min (est)9 prompts 7 intermediate · 2 advanced
11
Deep Research: Automated Web and Drive Discovery
Delegate source discovery: Fast Research for quick gap-filling, Deep Research for agentic web investigation with a cited report, Drive discovery for internal documents, and the curation discipline that keeps every import trustworthy.
~45 min (est)9 prompts 6 intermediate · 3 advanced
Capstone · Brown BeltKnot open
The Briefing Factory
One notebook in, a full briefing pack out. You will curate a professional-grade source set, then run it through the whole Studio floor: a custom-format report, a deliberately chosen audio format, a mind map, a visual, and a study set, finishing with the consistency check that makes the pack shippable. The pass bar is a pack you would actually send, where every artifact tells the same story.
  • Create a notebook with eight or more curated sources of mixed types on a topic from your professional life.
  • Configure custom instructions with a persona matched to your audience, and add a 'read me first' source describing the notebook's purpose and key questions.
  • Generate a Report using a custom format: state the objective, audience, and tone explicitly rather than accepting a default.
  • Generate an Audio Overview after deliberately choosing among the formats (Deep Dive, Brief, Critique, or Debate), writing a one-line reason for your choice, plus a specific focus prompt.
  • Generate a Mind Map, explore five branches, and save the single most surprising connection as a note.
  • Generate one visual artifact, an Infographic or a Video Overview, focused on the three facts your audience must retain.
  • Generate a quiz from the notebook, take it, and use the cited explanation feedback on at least one question.
  • Run a Deep Research pass to extend the notebook, import the report and best new sources, then confirm your key artifacts still hold up: regenerate any that new evidence contradicts.
DeliverableA shippable briefing pack from a single notebook: a custom-format report, a format-justified audio overview, a mind map insight note, a retention-focused visual, and a tested quiz, plus a consistency log showing the pack survived a Deep Research update.
Black Belt
Mastery
Not started
12
Gemini Integration and Cross-Notebook Queries
Break the notebook silo. Use your notebooks as context inside the Gemini app, pull Gemini conversations back in as sources, and design a modular multi-notebook architecture that answers questions no single notebook can.
~45 min (est)9 prompts 3 intermediate · 6 advanced
13
Advanced Workflows: Tool Chaining and Cross-Source Synthesis
Chain NotebookLM with discovery and drafting tools, and master the synthesis moves professionals rely on: comparison matrices, contradiction hunts, evidence audits, and red-teaming your own conclusions before anyone else can.
~45 min (est)9 prompts 3 intermediate · 6 advanced
14
Domain Playbooks: Research, Business, Education, and Content
Apply everything to real work: literature reviews and thesis chapters, competitive war rooms and client prep, course kits with a built-in tutor, and a multi-channel content pipeline, each as a repeatable recipe.
~45 min (est)9 prompts 3 intermediate · 6 advanced
15
Building Your NotebookLM System: Templates and Daily Workflows
Turn scattered notebooks into an operating system: an audited architecture, a prompt library and kickoff kit, daily and weekly rhythms, quota budgeting, and a quarterly prune that keeps the whole thing alive.
~45 min (est)9 prompts 3 intermediate · 6 advanced
Capstone · Black BeltKnot open
The Intelligence Desk
Stop using notebooks and start running an intelligence operation. You will architect a multi-notebook system with a prompt library and kickoff kit, span it with Gemini, push one real question through the full tool chain, and document the machine well enough that a colleague could operate it. The pass bar is a system that produced one stakeholder-ready deliverable and would survive your two-week vacation.
  • Design and build a three-notebook architecture by domain, each opening with a self-describing 'read me first' source, plus a master index notebook holding one abstract per notebook.
  • Populate twelve or more sources across the system using a mix of uploads, URLs, and an imported Deep Research report.
  • Build your prompt library source (ten or more fill-in-the-blank prompts organized by job) and a one-page kickoff kit, then prove the kit by standing up a fresh notebook in under ten minutes.
  • In the Gemini app, run one question across two attached notebooks, then import the Gemini conversation back as a source and audit which of its claims your curated sources do not support.
  • Run one full chain on a real work question: discover and import fresh sources, build a comparison matrix, red-team your conclusion until no fatal critique survives, then produce a custom-format report.
  • Extend the chain to delivery: a focused audio overview and a five-line action memo whose every claim traces back to cited sources.
  • Execute one domain playbook from Module 14 end to end on your actual job, timing each step.
  • Write the system manual in your system notebook: architecture map, naming convention, kickoff kit, maintenance rhythms with calendar slots, quota budget with your binding constraint, and a changelog, edited until a colleague could run the desk without you.
DeliverableA documented three-notebook intelligence system with a master index, prompt library, and kickoff kit; one audited cross-notebook Gemini query; one complete research-to-action chain ending in a stakeholder-ready report, audio overview, and action memo; and a system manual a colleague could operate from.
Beginner Intermediate Advanced Bar length is the module's prompt count against the longest module here; its segments are that module's own mix. Minutes are the curriculum's per-module estimates, summed over what you have woven.
One cell is one module, at its belt cloth Woven cell: module complete Knot open until the belt's last module is woven. Kept on this device only.
// SOURCES

Curriculum Record

Every published source this curriculum cites: 35 distinct references, counted from the curriculum brief and from the prompts themselves. Prompts that quote one carry a source line; the rest are marked unsourced author prompts.

  1. 01jeffsu.orgnotebooklm-changed-completely-heres-what-matters-in-2026
  2. 02shareuhack.comnotebooklm-advanced-guide-2026
  3. 03datacamp.comnotebooklm
  4. 04workspaceupdates.googleblog.comnew-ways-to-customize-and-interact-with-your-content-in-NotebookLM
  5. 05pub.towardsai.netthe-notebooklm-workflow-that-changed-how-i-learn-any-technology-373f430a17e5
  6. 06sites.google.comnotebook-lm/tutorial
  7. 07growwithaiguide.substack.com10-notebooklm-tricks-every-power
  8. 08blog.googlenotebooklm-video-overviews-studio-upgrades
  9. 09blog.googlenotebooklm-google-ai
  10. 10support.google.com16269187
  11. 11support.google.com16337734
  12. 12blog.googlenotebooklm-beginner-tips
  13. 13youtube.comwatch?v=nY7EMh-4_hA
  14. 14coursera.orghow-to-use-notebooklm-effectively
  15. 15youtube.comwatch?v=k74RUCqv0Jk
  16. 16androidauthority.comnotebooklm-tips-tricks-2026-3684989
  17. 17notebooklm.hknotebooklm-prompt-engineering-guide
  18. 18support.google.com16215270
  19. 19wondertools.substack.comnotebooklm-the-complete-guide
  20. 20youtube.comwatch?v=TI06AgTmxMc
  21. 21youtube.comwatch?v=SogSf-1p9t4
  22. 22youtube.comwatch?v=a2CFKDyUMu4
  23. 23youtube.comwatch?v=6vzB41UQjLo
  24. 24sourclip.comnotebooklm-complete-guide
  25. 25ud.hk2026-05-07-notebooklm-power-workflows
  26. 26yannkronberg.substack.comonly-notebooklm-guide-youll-ever
  27. 27blog.googlenotebooklm-discover-sources
  28. 28nicolleweeks.substack.com12-powerful-ways-to-use-notebooklm
  29. 29aifire.conotebooklm-tutorial-90-of-most-tutorials-skip-2026-tips
  30. 30blog.googlenotebooklm-student-features
  31. 31blog.google8-ways-to-make-the-most-out-of-slide-decks-in-notebooklm
  32. 32blog.googlenotebooklm-business-tips
  33. 33blog.googlenotebooklm-deep-research-file-types
  34. 34blog.googlenotebooks-gemini-notebooklm
  35. 35blog.googlebetter-research-notebooklm
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