My advice is to never improvise a navigation in-flight unless you're familiar with instant chart-to-terrain and terrain-to-chart translation. During your first navigations, follow a pre-planned route religiously. That will help you get used to the times and distances and will also give you awareness of what distances look like at different altitudes.
Here's a getto tip. Get some icecream sticks. Eat the icecreams (share with loved ones). Prepare each stick for the different ground speeds you normally encounter, like 80, 90, 100, 110, 120kts. Draw time lines on the sticks. For example, a stick on which you draw lines every 5nm (chart scale specific), will give you 3 minute divisions for a GS of 100kts. If with this stick, a feature is 3 segments away from another, then at a GS of 100kts, it'd take you 9 minutes to cover that distance. If it took longer, think wind.
If you get lost, sure, ask for help. I know you might feel it's embarrassing but don't let that stop you from doing it, as using the radio for non-routine communications is also valuable learning.
If you're out of danger, there are no D-R-P zones or restricted aispace around and still want to practice in-flight improvised navigation, it's always good to have a backup for reference. Use a VOR or an NDB. They're not only there for IFR you know. You can even use your phone with a navigation app (Jeppessen Flight Deck VFR is king) or simply google maps to quickly find where you are and then revert back to map reading. Start navigating using big references, like towns or following roads and trains. When you feel comfortable, fly away from roads and towns and use, for example, road crossings. Once you are really comfortable, try navigating using less noticeable features, like churches or obstacles appearing on the charts.
Enjoy that stage, as flight training will get too busy to be fun in no time for you.