I think the caveat is obvious here, that this is a method that applies to organizations with the help of a lot of formal methodologies, not individuals. For ind

I think the caveat is obvious here, that this is a method that applies to organizations with the help of a lot of formal methodologies, not individuals. For individual endeavors, it's always the right idea to start as early as possible, since without all the formal methodologies and structural control your estimate will always be literal laughing stock. Starting at the last moment is the absolute thing not to do for an individual who has no clear idea/experience about project management on her own(95% of people really). Not to mention another issue deadly enough on its own is that there's simply nobody supervising a hard deadline for your own projects, unlike within a company structure. If you do so, just wait for series of trainwreck to happen to you. I think this is proven by countless examples and experience already and nobody would really object to that.