Personally I find it a lot easier to fly IFR in cloud than VFR or VFR/IFR. The reason being there is less looking around for traffic etc. and flight using the instruments only is just more secure all around as you tend to pay more attention to the airplanes position and attitude in space. I guess it is all what you get used to.
As to logging time use common sense, if not you can carry a stopwatch and keep clicking it as you enter and exit clouds. In other words don't get to carried away with the bureaucratic B.S. as you will end up an idiot like the ones that make up all these stupid rules.
Flying by reference to instruments alone is just shrinking your world down to the size of the instrument panel, no more no less.
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The hardest thing about flying is knowing when to say no.