I haven't even started my PPL yet, hopefully it will be next month, but I was going to do the whole lot in one fell swoop, PPL, night rating and IMCr while I still have a training and examination head on. I know a guy who did the whole lot in less than a year without really breaking sweat or taking much over the minimum hours.
That's the best way to do all this.
And try to fly with some experienced pilots during your training, and get them to help you with any specific bits. Then, when you have your PPL, you will be able to just fly somewhere...
Very few people do a PPL in 45hrs. Those that do either have exceptional aptitude, or have been flying with somebody else
I also firmly believe that much of the VFR-IFR distinction is simply wrong. You are flying a plane and you have
multiple visual cues. Some come from the view outside, some come from the instruments. And even when VFR some come from the engine gauges etc, and of course the GPS. An instrument pilot will seamlessly transition between all these. So it is good to pick up instrument skills way before you are legal to use them. The establishment has to disagree because that is how it always was, right back to WW2, but the world has moved on.
You can be flying in perfect legal VFR in 3000m vis but you cannot (esp. over the sea) control the aircraft and navigate without instrument skills. Same on a proper dark night. One should never fly at night unless one has the full instrument skills (control and nav).