I agree with you. Learning how to manage one's programs effectively is an art. What "years of programming practices" cannot teach, a simple lesson in project management can do. It's may be apperant that no project management is required for very small projects. If you look at it again, the idea of the project management running in the background in your mind can definitely help.

Making list of your resources, taking inventory of your skills etc, has power to help you when you have lapse of memory, time etc.. Extending further, if you further identify these things for each and every programming task, it can become a very good practice and ultimately help you to finish your task faster and more effectively. Inititally you will feel a time waste, than it will run in the background and these skills will be woven in your mind, just like basic perl functions.

Artist's point of view