How to Use AI to Summarise Newsletters and Accelerate Your Learning

If you’ve ever opened your inbox to find five AI newsletters (or any of your fav newsletters) waiting for you, each you desperately want to absorb to the fullest, but feel like you have no time to sit and read them all, you know the struggle. Recently, I started using ChatGPT to summarise newsletters for faster learning, and it’s made a huge difference.

Here’s a simple, step-by-step guide to help you extract actionable insights from newsletters in minutes, without feeling overwhelmed.

Step 1: Save the Newsletter as a PDF Using "Print"

I’ve found that saving newsletters as PDFs works best, it ensures the layout stays clean and easy for ChatGPT to process.

Here’s how:

• Open your newsletter in Gmail (or any email platform).
• Select Print → Save as PDF.
• This method ensures the content is preserved without ads or formatting issues.

Step 2: Upload the PDF to ChatGPT

• Open ChatGPT (I recommend using ChatGPT Plus for faster responses).
• Click the paperclip icon to upload your saved PDF file.
• Alternatively, if you prefer, copy the newsletter content into a .txt file, this can produce better formatting in ChatGPT’s output.

Step 3: Use a Clear Summarisation Prompt

The quality of your results depends heavily on the clarity of your prompt.

Here are a few prompts I use regularly:

• Prompt 1:

"Summarise this newsletter into 5 key insights with actionable takeaways for startup founders."

• Prompt 2:

"Identify tools, strategies, and growth tactics mentioned in this newsletter."

• Prompt 3:

"Create a concise 200-word summary for a busy founder who needs actionable insights."

Step 4: Refine the Summary

Sometimes, ChatGPT will miss important points, especially in dense newsletters. If this happens, follow up with:

"Add details about tools or strategies mentioned in all sections."
"Highlight emerging trends or predictions from this newsletter."

This back-and-forth helps pull out deeper insights that you might have otherwise missed.

Step 5: Organise Insights for Future Reference

To keep your learnings organised, I recommend saving your summaries in tools like:

✅ Notion - Great for organising notes and tagging insights by category.
✅ Mem.ai - Automatically organises notes based on context.
✅ Obsidian - Ideal for crafting your "digital garden" and storing notes, thoughts, ideas.
✅ Google Notes - Uncomplicated and visual way of storing your notes / insights and ideas using colours and tags.

Creating a Weekly AI Roundup with your insights can also help you track key trends and revisit ideas when needed.

AI newsletters are packed with value - but you don’t need to read every word to extract meaningful insights. By combining ChatGPT’s summarisation powers with a simple workflow, you can surface actionable takeaways faster and spend less time drowning in your inbox.

If you give this method a try, let me know how it goes. I’d love to hear which newsletters you find most valuable!

Here is my recent summary from some of my favourite creators!

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