Amazing Marvin is a highly customizable personal productivity app. It has over a hundred optional features, which it calls strategies, that you turn on to build the system that fits your brain: time tracking, rewards, day planning, procrastination helpers and more. For people who enjoy shaping their own system, it is a solid choice.
Next Moves Lab takes the opposite route. There is no system to set up or maintain. You write down what is on your mind, and it picks the task to do now, with the reason and a small first step.
The short version
- Amazing Marvin is a solid pick if you enjoy shaping your own system and want a tool that bends to your preferences.
- Next Moves Lab is the better fit if building systems is how you avoid the work, and you would rather just be told what is next.
Side by side
Price
- Amazing Marvin
- $8 a month billed yearly ($96 a year)
- Next Moves Lab
- $9.99 a month, 30-day money-back guarantee
Setup
- Amazing Marvin
- Choose from 100+ optional features
- Next Moves Lab
- None; write or say what is on your mind
Who decides the order
- Amazing Marvin
- You, with the strategies you turn on
- Next Moves Lab
- It does, and shows you the reason
How the morning starts
- Amazing Marvin
- Depends on the strategies you turn on
- Next Moves Lab
- The first task is already waiting
What you see
- Amazing Marvin
- Whatever you configure
- Next Moves Lab
- One task and a small first step; the rest waits in Later
Follow-ups
- Amazing Marvin
- You add them
- Next Moves Lab
- Suggested from what you finished; tap Yes or No
When Amazing Marvin is a solid choice
- You know what works for you. If you have clear preferences, Marvin can match a great many of them.
- You like to tinker. Turning strategies on and off until the system feels right is part of the appeal.
Where Next Moves Lab wins
- Fewer decisions. A hundred options is a hundred choices. Next Moves Lab asks for a goal for the week and a few rules, and that is it.
- The choice is made for you. You open the app and get one task, the reason it won, and a first step of a couple of minutes. You can swap the pick.
- Nothing to maintain. No system to tune and no views to fix when they stop working.
- Your rules are kept. Set "no calls before 10" or "admin on Fridays" once, and every plan respects it.
- Nothing piles up in red. Unfinished work waits quietly in Later, with no overdue counts or streaks. Only you remove a task.
- Follow-ups come to you. Finish a quote or an invoice and it suggests the follow-up. You tap Yes or No.
Switching from Amazing Marvin
Copy your open tasks and paste them into Next Moves Lab, in any order. Add the one or two rules you rely on most, like "admin on Fridays", and set a goal for the week.
Common questions
Can I customize Next Moves Lab?
A little: your goal for the week, your rules, and your time and energy each day. On purpose, not much more.
Which is better for ADHD?
Both are used by people with ADHD. Marvin suits people who want to shape their tools. Next Moves Lab suits people who want the fewest decisions possible.