I’ve stuck with Amazing Marvin longer than any other project management/todo app. That includes some pretty awful times when 95% of my tasks were medical or basic home care, times I was firing on all cylinders and cranking through ambitious projects, and times inbetween.
Some things I like about Marvin
The two failures of project management apps are lacking features critical to your process, and feature clutter coming between you and your work. Marvin avoids this by letting you toggle features on and off (many blatantly stolen from other project management apps).
For example, I have enabled the feature to add a point value to my tasks, but have disabled frog ratings (as in “eat that frog”).
Separate concepts of due date and do date, and it’s very easily and rewarding to look at today’s do list.
Lots of options for recurring tasks- every X days, X days after I complete it the last time, every 4th Tuesday, etc.
Pinned tasks/projects let me track common recurring tasks without having to schedule them or recreate every time.
Infinite nesting of projects.
Infinite nesting of projects, plus single levels of tasks and subtasks, plays really well with what David MacIver calls “14-step coffee days”. You can tailor the level of detail in ways that feel natural and leave you energy for the day.
Maintains an archive of what was done when so I can look back on accomplishments over time.
Smart Lists with shortcuts let me have high-visibility lists besides the today list. I have one for topics I need to discuss with a doctor, and another for tasks for my house cleaner.
Their logo does a little dance when I complete an item.
Some things I find lacking about Marvin
the hotkey shortcuts are bizarre. time should be @ but is +, tags are @ when they should be #, # is for projects.
Recurring tasks could be a little easier to edit.
things not on today’s do list can slip out of view. You can fix this with regular sweeps, but then you need to be vicious about backburnering tasks so the most important tasks don’t get lost in the shuffle.
Principles I think are important with these kinds of apps:
If it’s not innately rewarding to use an app, I will eventually stop. Making the app experience self-reinforcing is worth almost any sacrifice.
I have a 5-point daily task to open the app.
GTD says to capture everything in one system so your brain is clear. This feels good when I start it, but capturing everything clutters my system so badly it becomes unrewarding to open.
The dancing mascot does help with this, but only as icing on the underlying productivity experience.
I’ve stuck with Amazing Marvin longer than any other project management/todo app. That includes some pretty awful times when 95% of my tasks were medical or basic home care, times I was firing on all cylinders and cranking through ambitious projects, and times inbetween.
Some things I like about Marvin
The two failures of project management apps are lacking features critical to your process, and feature clutter coming between you and your work. Marvin avoids this by letting you toggle features on and off (many blatantly stolen from other project management apps).
For example, I have enabled the feature to add a point value to my tasks, but have disabled frog ratings (as in “eat that frog”).
Separate concepts of due date and do date, and it’s very easily and rewarding to look at today’s do list.
Lots of options for recurring tasks- every X days, X days after I complete it the last time, every 4th Tuesday, etc.
Pinned tasks/projects let me track common recurring tasks without having to schedule them or recreate every time.
Infinite nesting of projects.
Infinite nesting of projects, plus single levels of tasks and subtasks, plays really well with what David MacIver calls “14-step coffee days”. You can tailor the level of detail in ways that feel natural and leave you energy for the day.
Maintains an archive of what was done when so I can look back on accomplishments over time.
Smart Lists with shortcuts let me have high-visibility lists besides the today list. I have one for topics I need to discuss with a doctor, and another for tasks for my house cleaner.
Their logo does a little dance when I complete an item.
Some things I find lacking about Marvin
the hotkey shortcuts are bizarre. time should be @ but is +, tags are @ when they should be #, # is for projects.
Recurring tasks could be a little easier to edit.
things not on today’s do list can slip out of view. You can fix this with regular sweeps, but then you need to be vicious about backburnering tasks so the most important tasks don’t get lost in the shuffle.
Principles I think are important with these kinds of apps:
If it’s not innately rewarding to use an app, I will eventually stop. Making the app experience self-reinforcing is worth almost any sacrifice.
I have a 5-point daily task to open the app.
GTD says to capture everything in one system so your brain is clear. This feels good when I start it, but capturing everything clutters my system so badly it becomes unrewarding to open.
The dancing mascot does help with this, but only as icing on the underlying productivity experience.