ADHD-Friendly App Review: (Amazing) Marvin

As part of a series about ADHD apps, let's talk about my new fave: Marvin.

Download Marvin here: https://amazingmarvin.com/

Transcript

00:00:00:01 - 00:00:25:02
Arianna
What's up, suckers? It's me. I'm back. Before we go ahead and start getting into the review, I just wanted to remind you guys that we do have group coaching available. So if you are looking for accountability, if you are looking for support, but you don't really want to do the one on one thing, group coaching is available. You can see the link in the description and with that, let's get into the review of probably my favorite up to date.

00:00:25:14 - 00:00:28:07
Arianna
Marvin All right.

00:00:31:03 - 00:00:56:14
Arianna
So before I get into this, I know I already said before, but there's always two Befores. If you've been here long enough, you know better I need you. If you love this too, please like and subscribe. It helps me find cool people. It helps cool people find me. And that's why I'm doing this in the first place. So honestly, if you've been following me long enough, you are probably aware at this point that I love testing apps.

00:00:56:14 - 00:01:18:18
Arianna
I love playing with productivity apps because I don't know, it's just kind of fun. You get a chance to see your new process, your new routine every day, and you usually stumble on some gems and you also usually just kind of stumble on new ways to see your tasks and you learn about yourself and learn how your brain needs to see these things.

00:01:18:18 - 00:01:44:03
Arianna
So recently I was really interested in starting a series for you guys where I was going to try to review one app at a time instead of four or five like I usually do. That way I was able to kind of go more into why it might be great for ADHD, why it might not be what kind of ADHD or what kind of view or person might fit the app specifically.

00:01:44:11 - 00:02:10:00
Arianna
And I decided to start just kind of looking around for different apps. And in one of my Facebook groups, somebody suggested this one that I'm talking about today called Marvin or Amazing Marvin and the Amazing is apt. And I say this without a little bit of hyperbole. I think this might be the closest to a perfect ADHD app that I have ever used.

00:02:10:17 - 00:02:33:28
Arianna
So let's go ahead and talk about Marvin. Now, I want to make it clear I am not affiliated with Marvin in any such way. I tried. I'm too small. It's not about the size motion of the ocean and all that. You know, anyway, I my job is to help you guys find stuff that might help. So whether they're throwing me money or not, this is a legit app.

00:02:34:08 - 00:03:00:24
Arianna
So a little bit about Marvin's background and what it is. It's a task management app, mainly for desktop, started by Christina Y Verne and her husband Mark, Christina realized that she was a constant procrastinator. Sound familiar? And she decided that she wanted to make something that would help her work through her or her productivity issues. And they wound up building an app just for that.

00:03:01:20 - 00:03:25:09
Arianna
Now, the thing that I love about Marvin, though, is that he kind of feels like Christina had the same issue I did and just decided with the knowledge that she has that I definitely don't to fix the problem, that problem being that there are no apps out there that are perfectly built for any one ADHD brain or any one person.

00:03:25:16 - 00:03:48:24
Arianna
Everything out there generally tends to have something wrong with it. I can't stand to do it because it's too simple and it doesn't really seem to have a decent integration. With Google Calendar, for example, a click up is great. I love the colors. I love the constant different kinds of views you can build, but sometimes it's just a little heavy for like task management work.

00:03:49:09 - 00:04:11:07
Arianna
So Marvin steps in by making it so that you are able to essentially build your own perfect app for task management and productivity. So just a simple layout of the things that I love about this app for one, it is fully customizable, 100% customizable, even though I guess I shouldn't say 100% because I'm sure someone out there is me.

00:04:11:08 - 00:04:41:21
Arianna
Like actually, if it was 100% customizable, you could change code or, I don't know, something stupid. Listen, it's highly customizable in that what you see every day depends on what you choose to see every day. You're basically going to build your own dashboard of what they call features and strategies. And this is an extensive list we're talking Pomodoro techniques, background colors, labels, document attachments.

00:04:41:25 - 00:05:01:18
Arianna
Basically anything that you think that you might need to make it so that you have a view that works with your brain. You've got and I'm sure that there are things out there that they're missing, but I personally have not been able to find one thing that I haven't needed that I haven't found in their features and strategies list.

00:05:01:28 - 00:05:29:03
Arianna
A great example is right after I made my video about kind of trying to figure out how to rebuild back into some sort of routine after being sick, I was like, you know, it would be a lot easier if I could just look at my days according to specific subjects, specific things that I need to focus on. Specific categories, I think was the word that I or the term that I was thinking of, and bam, they had it under the term theming.

00:05:29:03 - 00:05:57:25
Arianna
And now I have Mondays that are operation days, Tuesdays that are for content on Wednesdays that are for writing and so on and so forth. It's outstanding and I probably have that wrong, but I don't need to remember it because it's in Marvin. And you can tell that the whoever, whether Christina herself has ADHD or not, you can tell that this was built with people like us in mind in that it has a number of things to kind of help you get through the day at a pace that works for you.

00:05:58:03 - 00:06:23:07
Arianna
You have the Pomodoro timer that's in there. You also have this amazing thing called a procrastination wizard that helps you kind of figure out why it is you're procrastinating so that maybe you can get back on track. And the ultimate proof that this is a great app for people like us is the gamification. Marvin is highly gamified, or it can be if that's what you would like it to be.

00:06:23:07 - 00:06:52:19
Arianna
I love it. You're basically able to earn something called Marvin Kudos, which helps you to continue to level up and at certain levels you tend to gain new celebration animations, new features. So there's always something new to look forward to. In fact, I think I just earned a little animation of their mascot, aptly named Marvin, who looks like a little domo looking dude now.

00:06:52:19 - 00:07:13:14
Arianna
He jumps up for joy. When I finish a task, you can also choose to have it so that you gain reward points and you set up your own reward bank that you earn those points towards, and then you cash them in for rewards. There are a number of different ways to make it so that you actually want to get to the end of the most important tasks.

00:07:13:21 - 00:07:34:06
Arianna
There is also marking the frog in case you have stuff that you're really not looking forward to, starring things that are very important and probably one of the most important things I think for human beings just in general is scheduling things for the next day. If you have to leave them behind there is also a Marvin's, the mobile app.

00:07:34:18 - 00:08:02:20
Arianna
It is in comparison to its desktop version, very, very simplistic, but it gets the job done if you just need to go ahead and click tasks off while you're out and about. And because I don't like to be dishonest I'm actually also going to tell you guys what I don't like about Marvin. There's not a lot, but because Marvin is in its infancy, of course there are still some things that definitely need to be fixed.

00:08:02:20 - 00:08:26:21
Arianna
Like I said, their mobile app is super, super simplistic. You're not going to be able to do as much granular categorization as you can on desktop but you are able to make sure that you color code and label things. So there are some things that you are able to do on the mobile app. They also have mentioned that they are looking to make the app much closer to a desktop version.

00:08:26:21 - 00:08:48:03
Arianna
So who knows? By the time I post this that may not even be an issue anymore. Also, I will say that if you have a lot of larger scale projects, Marvin is not the best for that. It can be done. I do that myself. I actually have been using Marvin every day for the past three, four months and I haven't had an issue with it.

00:08:48:08 - 00:09:19:29
Arianna
But if you have a lot of projects, say design projects, things like that, where you really need to be keeping track of the live progress of a task, this is not going to be the app for you. You can't do that. You can. You can add subtasks, you can do dates, but you're not able to, you know, mark something as in progress or in review, like you would like to, at least not natively, without probably having to try to figure out some clever way of doing it.

00:09:20:02 - 00:09:44:17
Arianna
Also, this is not a team app, so if you tend to handle things by yourself, that's great. But if you're a person who wants to or has to work with more than one person, this is not going to work for you because there isn't even an option to share between you and another person. So if you also work on teams, this is not an app for you.

00:09:44:17 - 00:10:16:21
Arianna
But I did forget to mention one other thing that I really like about Marvin that leads into one small thing that I don't like. Basically, Marvin also gives you the option to make your dashboard your daily view look, a look however you want, even according to certain productivity methods. So like if you're the kind of person who really likes the Eisenhower method or the must want should method, you have the chance to fix that.

00:10:17:00 - 00:10:35:23
Arianna
If you would rather see your week at a glance, your month at a glance, rather than just one day, you can do that. And if you are the kind of person who likes to time blog, they even have that option where you're able to pull up your calendar side by side with your task master list and drag your tasks into your calendar.

00:10:35:29 - 00:11:04:25
Arianna
Now, here is my complaint. If you drag it in and it's going to take 45 minutes or 15 minutes or 25 minutes, something that is not 30 minutes to an hour you can't place it accordingly. You have to place it only according to a 30 minute to an hour window, which drives me fucking up the wall because I like to see exact times, 45 minutes versus, you know, 25 minutes.

00:11:04:25 - 00:11:32:10
Arianna
I like to see that stuff. So is that the end all? Be all for me? Obviously not. I actually finished with a 30 day free trial and wound up paying for a whole year because I knew that I was going to love this, even if, you know, I have to take breaks here and there, even though I doubt it because there are so many options to how I can look at things that as my brain changes and as my need to see things changes, I am able to change what I see.

00:11:32:17 - 00:11:56:12
Arianna
So I love it. But for the love of God, if anybody on the team for Marvin is watching, some of us don't have to be within 30 minutes to an hour. Sometimes it can be 25 minutes or 45 minutes. Those times exist so in conclusion, I can't say enough good things about Marvin. They're only continuing to improve the app. I think it's just going to continue to keep getting better.

00:11:56:12 - 00:12:24:10
Arianna
It is fantastic for people with ADHD. I definitely would suggest it. That being said, let's talk about who this is good for and this isn't good for if if you are a busy parent, a solopreneur or a student, somebody who is working on their own is able to kind of run their own task management system, doesn't need to really bounce things off of other people.

00:12:24:18 - 00:12:58:26
Arianna
This is fantastic for you. It's perfect. For you. I say go for it. Also, if you are the kind of ADHD that really just needs to be able to change things on a dime, to customize constantly, to be able to move your tasks around at will, then this is going to be your kind of thing. But if you are a person who works on teams or if you're away from your desk most of the time, or if you really prefer a more simplistic task tool, I would not suggest Marvin's for you.

00:12:58:27 - 00:13:21:21
Arianna
It's not going to be a good call with that. Here are some more details on it. Marvin is available on pretty much every platform Linux, Linux, Linux, Mac, Windows, iOS, Android, all of them. It does come with a free 30 day trial and then after that you can choose to pay monthly at about $12 yearly at about $95.

00:13:21:29 - 00:13:40:12
Arianna
Or you can pay a lifetime amount of $300 and it's yours forever. And so there you have it. If Marvin is something that you're interested in trying, the link is in the description. I will be going over some apps that I've already talked about and some more that I'm sure I'll find in the future. My goal is to help you find something that helps you.

00:13:40:18 - 00:13:52:08
Arianna
So hopefully this was helpful for you. Let me know if it was in the comments or if there's one that you would like me to look into. Thank you very much for watching. Drink plenty of water. Take care of yourself and I'll see you in the next video.