The author discusses how integrating Google Keep with Gemini has revitalized their use of the note-taking app, allowing for more powerful organization and information retrieval.
This article discusses how NotebookLM can replace several tools in a typical productivity stack, specifically for mind mapping, YouTube learning, progress tracking, and document sorting/organizing.
* **Mind Mapping:** NotebookLM's interactive mind maps are more robust and useful than dedicated diagramming tools like Mermaid, especially for visual thinkers and UX design tasks.
* **YouTube Learning:** NotebookLM streamlines YouTube learning by analyzing transcripts, allowing simultaneous viewing, AI-assisted summarization, and note-taking – eliminating the need for apps like Notion or Obsidian for this purpose.
* **Progress Tracking:** While NotebookLM's timeline feature is gone, it can still generate detailed tables to track projects and tasks based on provided sources, offering insights and improvement suggestions.
* **Document Sorting & Organizing:** NotebookLM helps organize messy documents by prompting it to categorize and sort files, making the manual naming and organization process more efficient.
* **Mind Mapping:** NotebookLM's interactive mind maps are more robust and useful than dedicated diagramming tools like Mermaid, especially for visual thinkers and UX design tasks.
* **YouTube Learning:** NotebookLM streamlines YouTube learning by analyzing transcripts, allowing simultaneous viewing, AI-assisted summarization, and note-taking – eliminating the need for apps like Notion or Obsidian for this purpose.
* **Progress Tracking:** While NotebookLM's timeline feature is gone, it can still generate detailed tables to track projects and tasks based on provided sources, offering insights and improvement suggestions.
* **Document Sorting & Organizing:** NotebookLM helps organize messy documents by prompting it to categorize and sort files, making the manual naming and organization process more efficient.
This article details seven small Python scripts designed to automate common tasks and improve productivity on both Mac and Windows machines:
**Script Name** | **Purpose** | **Key Features/Notes** |
|---|---|---|
| **Inbox Cleaner** | Cleans email inbox | Archives or deletes emails older than a specified number of days. Works with IMAP, compatible with most email providers. |
| **S3 Backup** | Backs up files to cloud storage | Uploads files to an S3-compatible storage provider. Minimalist, suitable for daily/weekly backups. |
| **Screenshot Sorter** | Organizes screenshots | Finds screenshots, sorts them by date into a tidy folder structure. Includes a dry-run mode. |
| **Bulk Rename** | Renames multiple files | Renames files using patterns or sequentially. Uses regular expressions for advanced renaming. |
| **Arrange It** | Organizes files into folders | Moves files into categorized folders based on their extension (Images, Docs, Spreadsheets, etc.). |
| **Clipboard Save** | Saves clipboard history | Saves every new clipboard item to a daily text file. Creates a personal history of copied text. |
**Script Name** | **Purpose** | **Key Features/Notes** |
|---|---|---|
| **Inbox Cleaner** | Cleans email inbox | Archives or deletes emails older than a specified number of days. Works with IMAP, compatible with most email providers. |
| **S3 Backup** | Backs up files to cloud storage | Uploads files to an S3-compatible storage provider. Minimalist, suitable for daily/weekly backups. |
| **Screenshot Sorter** | Organizes screenshots | Finds screenshots, sorts them by date into a tidy folder structure. Includes a dry-run mode. |
| **Bulk Rename** | Renames multiple files | Renames files using patterns or sequentially. Uses regular expressions for advanced renaming. |
| **Arrange It** | Organizes files into folders | Moves files into categorized folders based on their extension (Images, Docs, Spreadsheets, etc.). |
| **Clipboard Save** | Saves clipboard history | Saves every new clipboard item to a daily text file. Creates a personal history of copied text. |
A roundup of four lightweight Python utilities that automate common annoyances—sorting your Downloads folder, quickly logging timestamped notes, cleaning tracking parameters from copied URLs, and logging intermittent internet outages—each presented with source code and usage tips.
This article discusses practical AI adoption, focusing on how AI should serve people and how to move from the current state to an ideal future state. It highlights examples of companies like Smartsheet and Western Governors University seeing ROI from Grammarly, and announces Grammarly's acquisition of Superhuman. It also introduces a 'Big Rocks' ritual for quarterly planning and discusses the three phases of productivity (digitization, collaboration, and agentic AI).
**Key Points:**
* **AI as a Workflow Redesign:** Mehrotra sees AI moving beyond simple automation to fundamentally redesigning work, becoming an active participant alongside humans.
* **Rituals for AI Integration:** He emphasizes the importance of establishing work "rituals" to effectively integrate AI, citing examples like AI-powered email triage and new hackathon formats. He introduces the "Big Rocks" method for prioritizing initiatives.
* **Grammarly's Success with AI:** The article highlights Grammarly's ROI for clients like Smartsheet (283% ROI, 1600 hours saved) and Western Governors University (146,000 hours saved, $2.5M savings).
* **Grammarly's Acquisition of Superhuman:** This acquisition is presented as a step towards a unified, AI-powered productivity suite.
* **Three Phases of Productivity:** Mehrotra outlines three phases: digitization (faster work), collaboration (real-time work), and now, agentic AI (AI participating in work). He argues organizations need to prepare for this shift by viewing AI as a tool to *augment* human work, not replace it.
* **Further Reading/Resources:** The article links to additional content, including a Fast Company piece by Mehrotra and links to relevant news articles about Grammarly, Figma, and other companies.
**Overall:** The article advocates for a thoughtful, ritual-based approach to AI adoption, focusing on how AI can enhance existing workflows and empower employees rather than simply automating tasks. It showcases Grammarly's position as a leader in this space.
**Key Points:**
* **AI as a Workflow Redesign:** Mehrotra sees AI moving beyond simple automation to fundamentally redesigning work, becoming an active participant alongside humans.
* **Rituals for AI Integration:** He emphasizes the importance of establishing work "rituals" to effectively integrate AI, citing examples like AI-powered email triage and new hackathon formats. He introduces the "Big Rocks" method for prioritizing initiatives.
* **Grammarly's Success with AI:** The article highlights Grammarly's ROI for clients like Smartsheet (283% ROI, 1600 hours saved) and Western Governors University (146,000 hours saved, $2.5M savings).
* **Grammarly's Acquisition of Superhuman:** This acquisition is presented as a step towards a unified, AI-powered productivity suite.
* **Three Phases of Productivity:** Mehrotra outlines three phases: digitization (faster work), collaboration (real-time work), and now, agentic AI (AI participating in work). He argues organizations need to prepare for this shift by viewing AI as a tool to *augment* human work, not replace it.
* **Further Reading/Resources:** The article links to additional content, including a Fast Company piece by Mehrotra and links to relevant news articles about Grammarly, Figma, and other companies.
**Overall:** The article advocates for a thoughtful, ritual-based approach to AI adoption, focusing on how AI can enhance existing workflows and empower employees rather than simply automating tasks. It showcases Grammarly's position as a leader in this space.
An Apple study shows that large language models (LLMs) can improve performance by using a checklist-based reinforcement learning scheme, similar to a simple productivity trick of checking one's work.
This article explores alternatives to NotebookLM, a Google assistant for synthesizing information from documents. It details NousWise, ElevenLabs, NoteGPT, Notion, Evernote, and Obsidian, outlining their key features, limitations, and considerations for choosing the right tool.
This blog post details a personal code review tool built around `llm` and `git diff`. It describes installation, how it works, how the author uses it, and its advantages over GitHub's Copilot review tool.
Grammarly is expanding beyond grammar checking to become a comprehensive AI platform, leveraging a $1 billion investment to integrate AI agents into user workflows across various applications like Zoom, Slack, and Coda. The company aims to provide contextual AI assistance without disrupting the user experience.
The author details their switch from Google Docs to Outline, a free and open-source collaborative editor, highlighting its simplicity, Slack integration, privacy features, and sufficient functionality for their needs, despite some missing features like advanced table creation and detailed version history.
