During approach I have the habit of setting the heading bug of the gyrocompass on the runway orientation.
By then visually dividing the compass rose in four (4) quadrants I can see at a glance at witch point to turn for the next leg of the landing pattern.
This gives me a better idea of my relative position to the runway, very helpfull when visual contact with the runway is rather poor like with a high wing airplane (of which the wing takes away the view during banking), with poor visibility, or when a runway is difficult to distinguish (such as grass runways in the middle of a green landscape).

In the example the runway in use is the 24 (240°) and we fly a Left Hand pattern.
After take off we turn left to join the Cross Wind Leg until the heading bug is exactly on the right side,
next turn is towards Down Wind until the bug is at the bottom,
then we join Base Leg by turning left until the bug is on the left side,
last turn will be for Final and the bug will be on the top again.

In fact, it seems like the heading bug is always pointing towards the end of the runway.

See fig.1 & 2

fig.1

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fig.2

Magnetic Variation

In the Northern hemisphere we subtract Easterly variation, and add Westerly variation to the true direction to obtain magnetic direction.
A phrase to remember this is:
"Variation East is Least,
Variation West is Best".

Magnetic Compass Under/Overshoot

A rule to remember the way to react on the magnetical compass under/overshoot (in the Northern hemisphere) is:
"Never look North, always See South",
meaning that:
when turning North, you should roll out before reaching the desired heading;
when turning South, you should turn until you have passed the desired heading;

Do you also know a rule?

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ENJOY FLYING,
AS FROM NOW,
EVEN MORE!