NotebookLM Tools tags transform notebook organization for power users

At a glance:

• NotebookLM Tools' tag feature transforms notebook organization for power users.
• Tags enable filtering by topic, rediscovering forgotten research, and tracking project status.
• Regular tag management prevents chaos and saves time compared to untagged notebooks.

The Problem with Untagged Notebooks

I had 19 NotebookLM notebooks on my dashboard, and some of their titles didn’t tell me exactly what was in them. Some notebooks were abandoned, while others remained active. I’d try to spot a notebook by its icon, but that didn’t always work either, since some were random ones I’d added in a hurry. I knew I had a Claude research notebook somewhere, but I had no idea if I had called it “Claude,” “Claude research,” or “AI notes.” So I would scroll and see if I could spot the notebook whose title I had forgotten. The whole process was messier than it needed to be, and honestly, tags would have fixed this months ago.

I’m the kind of person who starts a notebook on a topic I’m interested in, but if something more important gets in the way, I put the less important one to the side. That pattern repeats itself, and before I know it, I've totally forgotten the topic. I guess it wasn’t that urgent to start with if I kept putting it aside. Before I added the tags, I looked at my dashboard and saw notebooks that made me wonder why I started them. The titles alone didn’t help me remember what was inside, and I wasn’t going to click into every notebook just to check.

How Tags Bring Order to Chaos

I don’t have to remember my own notebook names to find them. The tag pulls up every notebook on that topic in one click. Tags were a huge help when I couldn’t remember the name of a notebook. When I was looking for one on a specific topic like AI, I would just click the tag and see all the notebooks I had on that subject. So if I wasn’t sure of a notebook's name, I could scan the notebooks with that tag, which was faster than going through every single notebook. I have 19 of them on my dashboard, so remembering the exact name of each one is a bit difficult. The tag saved me from having to guess.

When I click a tag, NotebookLM Tools filters my notebooks to show only those with that tag. From there, I scan the names, pick the one I need, and switch back to NotebookLM to open it. The tag doesn’t open the notebook, but at least I can see the notebook names. That way, I know exactly what name I’m searching for.

I had research I didn’t even know I’d forgotten about. Tags brought the old notebooks back into view. After I added the tags, I saw how leaving projects aside had really gotten out of hand. I had notebooks I knew I needed to erase right away. Some tags had three or four notebooks, and some had only one, like Password Security and Python. The count alone showed me which projects I was losing interest in.

I can see which notebooks are finished without opening them. A done tag spares me from clicking around to check. Before I added tags, I would open a notebook to see if I had left a note at the beginning that I was done with it. With the tags, I only have to glance at them and see which ones have that specific tag, and I don’t waste time opening the notebooks. Now, I use:

• DONE
• In Progress as status tags, so I can tell where a notebook stands before I open it. Right now, I have three notebooks marked DONE and one marked In Progress, and that’s all the information I need before I open a notebook. I love how I can use the tags to indicate a topic and a status, so Network Security can also be marked DONE without losing its category. The status tag saves me from having to click around just to check where I left off.

Maintaining Tag Sanity

The tag system can easily get out of control. If I add too many, it’ll just confuse me. Tags are useful, but if I start adding too many, it’s going to turn into a huge mess. Once I have more tags than notebooks, I am back to scrolling, which is exactly what I was trying to avoid. There will always be a reason to add a tag, whether it's the topic, whether it’s in progress, or who knows what else. In the end, the tag system can turn into a real headache. If I add an "In Progress” tag to a notebook I actually finished weeks ago, it tells me nothing useful, and a DONE tag on a notebook I still need to open is worse.

The tag system is fixable; 19 random notebooks weren’t. Once the tags are there, I can actually see what needs fixing. Even if the tag system got messy, it’s nothing a one-time cleanup can’t fix. Cleaning up a few extra tags is still easier than scrolling through 19 notebooks trying to remember what each one was. That teaches me to make tag management a regular part of my workflow, so it never gets out of control. From that point on, all the tags I’ll have will be up to date, and I won’t have to worry about what tags are current and which ones need to be removed.

Scanning tags is easier than reading every notebook title. After trying the tags in NotebookLM Tools, I can confirm it’s something I’ll keep. It helps me know which notebooks need my attention and which can wait. The only thing I regret is not setting tags up sooner. My dashboard would have been a lot less messy if I had.