For the average VFR flight the only instruments that are really necessary to monitor are ASI, Altimeter, and RPM gauge.
Since most of the flight is going to be cruising straight and level, after you have the aircraft stabilized in the cruise flight attitude, power set, trimmed, and the aircraft pointed at a geographic feature in the direction you want to go; there is pretty much no reason to be looking inside except for an occasional glance at the
T & P,s and the altimeter.
My number one pet peeve is pilots who chase the gauges. The two classics are when too low/high to push or pull while staring at the altimeter until it is at the right number, but then make no effort to set the correct cruise attitude and trim. Sure enough a minute later the aircraft is again off altitude and the whole process starts again. The other classic is chasing the airspeed on climbs and descents instead of again setting and holding an attitude,
by looking out the windshield then letting the aircraft settle down and only then referencing the ASI.
A recent student, who sadly held a CPL, was a terrible airspeed chaser. I finally broke him of this bad habit by covering up the ASI at the start of the prestart check and leaving the cover on until the end of the shut down check.
The AI and DI also do not exist for my PPL students until the nav and instrument phase near the the end of the course. The natural horizon provides all thr pitch and roll cues you need and the map provides the geograhic references in order to establish direction.
At the very least try covering your AI on the next few flights. It will make you a better pilot
