Marvin Help

The Basics (How to guide)

This guide walks you through the core ideas in Marvin. Each section is short and links to a more detailed article if you want to dig deeper.

1. Marvin is built from features

Marvin starts simple. Most of what it can do comes from features that you turn on when you need them. That way you only see what helps you.

  • Turning features on: open the main menu (☰) and click Features, or press S. Find a feature and switch it on. See How to turn features on and off and How to pick features.

  • The Access tab: each feature has an Access tab where you choose how you reach it. For example, you can add its button to the Sidebar, Skinny Sidebar or Bottom Menu, give it a keyboard shortcut, or add its action to the hover buttons or right-click menu. Marvin also asks you this when you turn a feature on.

  • Every feature has settings: if a feature doesn't behave the way you like, open it and look at its Settings tab. Almost everything about a feature can be adjusted there.

  • General settings: things that affect all of Marvin, like what happens when you click a task, live in ☰ > Settings (shortcut ,).

2. Categories, projects and tasks

Everything you need to do lives in your Master List, organized into:

  • Categories for the big areas of your life, like Work, Home or Health.

  • Projects for bigger pieces of work that take several sessions. See Working with projects.

  • Tasks for single steps you can do in one sitting.

See The Master List and Categories, projects and tasks.

  • Task: Single action to be taken.

  • Project: A collection of tasks to be completed.

  • Category: a static place to sort projects and tasks into.

  • shift + t for tasks

  • shift + p for projects

  • shift + c for categories

3. Lists

From your Master List, Marvin builds lists that show you just what you need right now. On the Lists page you'll find:

  • Premade lists that are ready to use, like This week, Overdue, Due soon, Quick or Most Important Projects. Which ones you see depends on the features you have on.

  • My Smart Lists: lists you build yourself with filters, for example "all quick tasks in Work". See Smart Lists.

4. Adding tasks

  • Press Space anywhere to open Quick Add.

  • While typing, you can add details with shortcuts, for example #Work to file it in a category or project, @label for a label, ~30m for a time estimate, +tomorrow to schedule it, or due friday for a deadline. See Using shortcuts while creating a task.

  • If your head is full, do a braindump to get everything out quickly.

5. Interacting with items

  • "Call Jane +tomorrow" - to schedule it for tomorrow

  • "Math final due 12/11/2018" - to assign a due date

  • "Pick up candles @city" - to add a label

  • "Make dentist appointment #Health" - to file it in a category

Full list of input shortcuts

  • Drag and drop items to re-order them. 

  • Drag and drop tasks into projects and categories. 

  • Drag and drop items from the sidebar into the interface on the right to schedule them, plan them, put them on a calendar etc. (depends on the overlay).

  • Hover buttons: hover over a task or project to see quick buttons, like marking it done or scheduling it.

  • Right-click menu: right-click an item for more actions.

  • You choose which actions appear in both. See How to customize the right-click menu and hover buttons.

  • Clicking an item: by default, clicking a task opens it in the edit panel on the right. You can change this in ☰ > Settings > Task/Project click behavior, for example to open the task in its own view, edit the title, or start Super Focus Mode.

  • Selecting several items: Shift+click or Ctrl/Cmd+click to select several items and edit them all at once. See Bulk editing tasks.

  • Making it look your way: use ☰ > Style to change themes, colors and how items look.

More in Interacting with items.

6. Dates

  • Click the edit icon (cog) on the right of the task and pick a due date from the dropdown

  • Click the calendar icon on the right of the task

  • Use the task input shortcut "due" -> "File taxes due 3/27/2018" or "File taxes due 5d"

  • Use the task input shortcut "+" -> "Call Seth +tomorrow"

  • Drag the task from the Master List sidebar into a day 

  • Spacebar to quickly add tasks and projects

  • Shift + S to open the Search dialog

  • Shift + Spacebar to navigate to any project or category

Marvin has a few different dates, and it helps to know the difference:

  • Scheduled: the day you plan to do it. The task shows up on that day's list.

  • Deadline: the day it must be done by. Use it only for real deadlines.

  • Start date (feature): hides the task until that day.

  • Review date (feature): brings the task back to your attention on that day.

See The different dates in Marvin.

7. Planning your day

Your Today list shows everything scheduled for today. A simple daily routine: look at your Master List, schedule what you want to do today, and work through it. See What is the My Day view? and The daily to-do list.

Unfinished tasks stay on the day you scheduled them. If you'd like them to move to today automatically, turn on Rollover Scheduled Tasks.

8. Prioritizing

Tasks and projects can have attributes that describe them, like a time estimate, labels, importance (stars), how much you dread it (Eat the Frog), urgency, size or energy level. You'll find most of them in the Item Properties and Prioritization groups on the Features screen. Use them to sort, filter and pick what to work on. See Importance Levels and Labels.

9. Work modes

Work modes change how you see your list, which helps when a long list feels overwhelming or you can't decide where to start. Open a list's menu (...) and pick one under Work modes. A few favorites:

10. Recurring tasks

Things you do regularly, like paying bills or weekly chores, can repeat automatically. You can also choose what happens if you miss one: keep them all, keep just one, or only the current one. See How to create recurring tasks and Stop recurring tasks from piling up.

11. Finding things

12. Safety nets

  • Undo: Ctrl+Z (Cmd+Z on Mac) undoes your recent changes.

  • Trash: deleted items go to the Trash, which you can find in your Account under Data.

  • Backups: Automatic Backups are on by default. You can also create and restore backups in your Account under Data > Backups. See How to restore backups.

13. Marvin on your phone

Marvin has a mobile app that syncs with your computer. See Welcome to the new Marvin mobile app.

Where to go next