Flying is no different than any other eye-hand sport, like golf or tennis, the more often you practice, the better you'll get.

So fly as much as you can, especially when you are new to it, more will stick in your brain from one flight to the next, if you can schedule them closer together.

If you can't get up once a week, at least do some T+G's for 30 minutes prior to taking off on a long cross country if it's been awhile since you last flew.

Any nit wit can fly straight and level, day VFR, you don't need to practice that very much. It's the landing that gets sporty, especially in gusty crosswinds in a light aircraft.

When you start doing your instrument training, it's all about the scan. The more you practice that, the better you'll be.

Don't get your IFR ticket and then never practice, because it won't come back to you if you haven't practiced it on a regular basis. Ask Jon-Jon Kennedy about that. Any time you are flying VFR with a passenger to look out for traffic, put on a hood for a little while and practice your instrument scan, and any time you find a runway with an operating ILS, practice flying it.