In this talk I tell the story of how I have learned to manage my projects and time on a shoe string budget to realize my life vision and goals. It all started when working as a contractor for a web development agency that pays by the hour. We were expected to keep track of every minute of time spent working for each individual client we had, becoming quickly cumbersome. It was at this point I started looking for tools to help make the process go smoother. Given that I was being paid to track every minute of my job, I started tracking every minute of my day. After leaving the agency to become self-employed I started playing with various project management methods and continued tracking my time. I'd like to share my experiences of that journey: what worked and was helpful, and what was literally a waste of time and should be avoided.