UpOrbit: the task manager I built for one thing a day

What problem was it built to solve?

It started because the productivity tools I tried kept failing me in the same ways. They all assumed I could hold fifteen tasks in my head, switch between them cleanly, and somehow remember why each one mattered by 3pm.

From my UpOrbit case study, published March 1, 2026.

Why UpOrbit shows one task a day

I built the tool I wished existed. Then I gave it away.

The web app works. But I kept forgetting to open it.

Also from the March 1, 2026 case study.

Did anyone find it through search? Very few people

Google sent 26 clicks in March 2026 and 6 in September, and Bing sent 9 in September. Google clicks peaked in March 2026, the first full month in the data, and have not come close since. Bing never sent more than 10 clicks in a month.

How I measured it. Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools daily totals summed by full month, pulled 2026-10-10 and 2026-10-11. These are search clicks only. They don't count anyone who opened the app directly, so they say nothing about whether its users kept using it.

What I got wrong while building it

The tool itself is designed around the principle of picking one thing. The build process did not follow its own advice.

Three products at once

I could not decide whether UpOrbit should be a website, a Chrome extension, or a native app. So I fragmented my effort across all three instead of picking one and doing it well first.

A search bar that collected nothing

The search bar went live without actually capturing input.

Too much in the first version

The simplest version was the best version, and I should have started there.

From the March 1, 2026 case study.