PCB design is more of an art than a science, there's no "magic solution" other than experience... the more boards you make, the better your designs will get, and the faster you will be able to design them. I've designed dozens and dozens of boards (probably approaching the hundred mark), and I can whip up a board design now much faster than when i first started...
There is no guarantee that any board can be done single-sided with short connections and no jumpers, especially when there are 3 or more IC's on it... so you should either get used to using jumpers, or learn to make double-sided boards :wink:
I still find many times when I have to give up and use some jumpers... I've caught myself spending an hour or two re-arranging traces to try and eliminate one jumper... then my traces get really long and cramped, and that's just an invitation for problems. You have to remember, it only takes a few seconds to solder in a simple jumper, so it's not worth wasting tons of time trying to mess with the design to get rid of it.
also, regarding your track width... 0.5mm is about 19 mils... I don't know what method you're using, but I regularly use 10 mil traces on my boards made using press-n-peel... I know I am always praising it, but it's hard to argue with the results... and I've never had a broken trace. sure helps when you're making small boards.