Everyone wants to know on day one, "how long will it take before I'm holding my PPL certificate?"
The correct answer, and the one you are used to, is "it depends."
It depends on weather.
It depends on your instructor's availability.
It depends on the maintenance schedule for the plane (or planes) you're flying during training.
Did I mention weather?
It depends on how long the FAA takes to issue your student license.
It depends on your written test proctor's schedule.
It depends on your DPE's schedule.
Even if you are a top notch student, these things can delay your progress because they are out of your hands. Oh, and don't forget about weather.
But let's say all of these things go smoothly. What can you expect?
I am going to answer this question, with the strong caveat that it really does depend on many factors, some in your control, some well outside of your control. So, the word of caution here is to be patient.
Here are the following landmarks you can reasonably expect in your training, specifically with relation to your logged hours.
0-1 Hour: Your discovery flight - the first time you will control an airplane as a student.
This is something a lot of people don't know - you will be hands-on with the controls in pretty much every training flight you take. This includes the first hour, commonly known as the "discovery flight." This is the introductory flight for you and your instructor to get to know each other a bit. I'm not a CFI, but my guess is that a good CFI is also judging your aptitude, comfortability, intelligence, and general response mechanisms the whole flight.
Pro tip: be on time to this (and every other) flight. Even though you are paying your instructor, it is important that you maintain the teacher-student dynamic. You will learn better if you impress your instructor consistently. This does not mean to show off, but rather to simply prepare, pay attention, and don't treat the lessons carelessly.
1-3 Hours: Your First Maneuvers
Typically you can expect to learn straight and level flight, turning, climbing, and descending during the initial training period.
Don't write this off. These fundamentals are important for the remainder of your flight career.
Pro tip: Start with the ACS standards in mind. Specifically, when your instructor asks you to turn to a heading or climb to an altitude, or maintain a particular airspeed or attitude, do so within the ACS tolerances as early as possible.
3-5 Hours: Radio Call Uncomfortability
You are going to be uncomfortable on the radio. And your instructor's job is to help you, but also push you. Don't worry - these things come with time.
Practice on the way to the airport. Practice reading license plates to practice the phonetic alphabet. Take a listen to ATC.
Pro tip:
Ask your instructor specifically for advice right after a call. "How would you have made that call? Was I too detailed? Too slow? Was I too short?"
4-8 Hours: Your first landing
This one is a really important moment in your flying career. Some will hit this earlier, some will hit it later, but your instructor is going to hone in on pattern work with you. Why? Because this is going to prepare you for solo flights.
Pro tip(s)
The two tips that changed my landings forever:
1. A good landing starts in the downwind leg. Specifically, don't get too fast or too high, or you'll get behind the plane and have excess energy.
2. In the transition phase, look down the runway. All the way to the trees, or the horizon, or whatever is beyond the numbers on the opposite end.
6-10 Hours: Emergencies, Slow Flight, and Stalls
If you're like me, stalls are going to feel incredibly uncomfortable. But this training can absolutely save your life. Once you've experienced what it feels like to stall a plane, and put a little 152 into an incipient spin, and then learned how to recover from that, you will be very thankful that it happened in a controlled environment.
Emergency procedures in general are going to make you a more confident pilot. This will feel like the first academically taxing part of your training (apart from radio calls). There is a lot to learn about emergencies, and the truth is that every practicing pilot is constantly aware of emergency procedures. Every responsible practicing pilot knows exactly what field or road they are going to land in given an engine failure at any point in a flight. This phase of your training will train you to think this way.
Slow flight will also make you much more comfortable with the plane. Holding the plane in a precision altitude, heading, and airspeed will tax your body and your mind, and you'll be surprised at how tired you will become after these training flights.
Edit: I looked back at my log book, and stalls were actually MUCH earlier than this for me (as in my second flight). But the average flight syllabus doesn't get into stalls until later, but only by a few flights.
7-10 Hours: Pattern Work, Radio Procedures, and Engine Failures in the Pattern
Most accidents occur near an airport. There are many reasons for this, but one of them is that during cruise flight, you aren't changing the engine configuration much. During takeoff phase and landing phase, the engine is responding to much more input from the pilot.
A lot of your emergency training will be to instill the muscle memory and responses necessary to deal with emergencies near the airport. This will be incredibly challenging, but will also give you a much better understanding of how your airplane actually flies.
Pro tip:
You will have down days. Bounces, floats, hard landings, etcetera. You may even have a great day, followed by a day where your instructor takes the controls from you. The best pilots still have plunky landings from time to time, and students can have fantastic landings from time to time. Remember, the most important thing you can do with your landings is be safe. If you have the choice of going around 10 times and landing safely, or not going around and landing unsafely, the correct answer is the go-around. Don't be proud - be safe.
Overall, hours 0-10
The first ten hours of flight training are intended to give you a healthy level of respect, excitement, and perspective for the journey of becoming a pilot. There will be times where you feel like you are moving quickly and learning fast, and other times where you feel like the knowledge in your brain isn't making its way to the controls in your hands. For hours 0-10, remember that your job is to learn as much about being a safe, alert, and competent pilot in the fundamentals of piloting the airplane.
Your instructor is your primary resource during this phase. Pay attention, and focus on studying the fundamentals of flight.
If you can't fly the plane, then any level of knowledge about airspace, weather, radio lingo, engines - none of it will be useful. During the first 10 hours, focus on piloting fundamentals.