These habits make Marvin easier to use and keep your lists feeling light. You don't need all of them on day one. Pick one or two that fit you and come back for more later.
Setting up
Start small. Turn on one or two features at a time and use them for a week before adding more. Marvin has a lot of features, and you'll get the most out of the few that solve your real problems. See How to pick features.
Organize by life areas. Use a handful of categories for the big areas of your life, like Work, Home and Health. Fewer is usually better. See Set up your life areas.
Pick a workflow. A workflow is simply the way you decide what to work on each day. Start with one and adjust it as you go. See Find a workflow that fits you.
Make Marvin work your way. If something bothers you, check that feature's settings. Almost everything can be adjusted, including what happens when you click a task.
Writing tasks
Make your tasks "tasty". A good task is a clear, concrete step you could start right away, like "Email Sam about the invoice" instead of "Invoice". Starting with a verb helps.
Keep tasks small. Ideally a task is something you can finish in one sitting. If it will take several sessions, or has several steps, make it a project instead.
Add a time estimate. Estimates help you see how much you've planned for a day and pick tasks that fit the time you have.
Capture first, organize later. When something comes to mind, add it quickly with Quick Add (press Space) and sort it out later. If your head is full, do a braindump.
Using dates
Use deadlines only for real deadlines. If nothing bad happens when the date passes, it isn't a deadline. Too many fake deadlines make it hard to see the ones that matter.
Schedule tasks for when you plan to do them. Scheduling a task puts it on that day's list. Deadlines say when it must be done. See The difference between do and due dates.
Don't schedule everything. Many tasks don't need a date at all. Leave them in your Master List and pick from them when you plan your day.
Plan a realistic day. It feels better to finish your list and add more than to move half of it to tomorrow. Duration estimates help here.
Keeping things manageable
Limit your active projects. Focus on a few projects at a time with Most Important Projects, and park the rest in the Backburner.
Hide what you can't do yet. Use start dates for things you can't or don't want to start before a certain day.
Stop recurring tasks from piling up. For each recurring task, choose what should happen if you miss one: keep them all, keep just one, or only the current one. See Stop recurring tasks from piling up.
Review regularly. A short weekly review keeps your lists up to date, so you can trust them. Review dates help with things you want to check on later.
Feeling overwhelmed? Try a work mode like the Task Jar or Super Focus Mode, which show you one task at a time instead of a long list. See I feel overwhelmed.
Keeping your data safe
Know your safety nets. Ctrl+Z (Cmd+Z on Mac) undoes your last changes, deleted items go to the Trash, and Automatic Backups are on by default. You can find Trash and Backups in your Account under Data. See How to restore backups.