Learn to handfly your aircraft very well and know your systems as we have all for decades been doing then incorporate automation to make your job easier.
This should be the philosophy of all TQ courses. When the a/c were more basic this was the way, naturally. There was less automation to learn. Then, as more wizz-bang goodies came on board they took more of the attention. There were more buttons and one had to use them. Sadly, the basic flying practice was diluted perhaps to keep the TQ course to the same number of hours, but now there was more button pushing to learn. IMHO, both aspects have been diluted. In many TQ courses the syllabus calls for basic knowledge of the automatics, but not their full envelope and gotchas. Thus the new student does not know the flying envelope of the a/c, their own envelope nor the full capabilities of the automatics. "Fly to SOP's and you'll be fine". They stay in the very small centre of a big box. Real life sometimes takes you towards the edges. This is outside the 'comfort zone'. The comfort zone is defined by knowledge & experience. Now there are captains around with 4 years flying experience for 1 airline on 1 type. They've spent their whole lives inside their tiny comfort zone box; never been taught or shown where the real edges are. It is a hell of a shock if they go near them and their uncertain intervention could make matters worse, not better. SOP's are designed so you never go near the edges, but life is not like that, especially when Murphy & Mother Nature are involved.
I repeat again & again: the pax expect us to save the day when it goes pear shaped, or at least have an idea how to try. They do not expect us to be the source of the problem and then make it worse.