Without a IDE project manager it is a pain to compile code. What do I do?

Learn about make. Most IDEs just provide a front end to a program called make. Versions of make exist on most platforms. The Windows installer for mspgcc includes a copy of the GNU version of make. On most other platforms, you probably already have a make program installed.

It takes little time to get used to the basics of make, and the make files for most projects are just a few lines long. It is a simple scripting tool, to define how your software is to be built. When you edit your source code, and run make it will rebuilt only what is necessary, on the basis of the files which have changed. The GNU documentation can be found at the GNU make home page.