One of the most common questions I get from new students is "how much should I practice?" I reply that the quality of the practice is far more important than the quantity. The amount of time spent would depend on how much you have available, of course, and the quantity and difficulty-level of your pieces. So there is no one answer to that question.
People rarely ask if they should follow some sort of plan for their practice sessions, but I think it's worth considering. I write detailed notes for all of students at the lessons, not only what they are to practice, but how to practice for the most efficiency and best results. I don't specify any order to follow, because I want them to have the flexibility to adapt their practice sessions to their schedules and their own moods.
When I was young, all my teachers said to do your "exercises" first. Scales, arpeggios, Hanon, Czerny and so on. Supposedly it was to help you "warm up" and prepare for the technical challenges in your pieces. I'm quite certain that many, many teachers still recommend the same thing today.
As you might have guessed, I disagree with that idea altogether. For most students, playing a lot of scales and arpeggios is not necessary. They are skills you need, yes, but from what I see, most students just play them over and over in a mechanical way. Scales and so on are only worth practicing if you are going to really work at doing them better, that is, more smoothly, faster, in different combinations, etc. If you already have the basic skill, you don't need to keep doing it over and over. Plus, you will encounter scales and so on in your pieces, so you will still get ample chances to work on those specific skills.
I really believe most people do not need to "warm up" their hands. We do thousands of manual tasks in our daily lives and do not need to warm up for them. True, piano is much more complex than all of our normal tasks, but if you are playing with the right technique, meaning integration of the arm, hand and fingers, you won't be over-taxing your muscles. If you have arthritis or another medical condition in your hands, you need to be especially mindful of your technique, that is does not rely solely on the small muscles of the fingers. If you are relying more on your larger muscles, the arm, then they are fine without any special type of warm up.
If you really do want some sort of warm up, then those exercises mentioned would be the worst way to do it, especially if you do them in the manner that is often prescribed, with high fingers and lots of articulation and isolation of the small muscles. Those exercises could potentially cause strain, the very thing you are trying to avoid by "warming up!"
In addition, if you do exercises first and then get interrupted and run out of time, you may not get to your actual music, which is the reason you probably want to play the piano in the first place.
Some people will advise you to organize your practice in a very rigid way, even down to the level of detail such as how much time to spend playing with the metronome. I couldn't disagree with this approach more. (On that note, please see my post "Burn Your Metronome.")
Instead, start with the music you are currently working on. You could start with the newest piece, the one you know least well, so you make sure to get to it. Or you could start with the one you know better, maybe one you can play by memory, so you have a nice gentle easing into your practice session. Of course you don't have to do them in the same order every time.
I usually recommend you play the piece through, then go back and work on "spots" that need extra attention, then end by playing through again. Playing through after spot work will tell you if, and how, your spot work was effective. I know many other teachers would disagree with this and say you need more time for trouble spots. Some even say to only do spot work. I like to emphasize the "wholeness" of the piece, rather than have it end up feeling like a patchwork of "spots." Places that were "spots" yesterday may be better today and no longer need special attention (probably because you worked on them yesterday and made progress!). Playing through first will tell you what needs work today. However, if it's a longer and/or more challenging piece, you could decide to start with spot work, but then still end by playing through.
For longer pieces, you will probably need to break them up into sections. Sometimes I like to start my practice session with the last section of the piece, then work backwards by section. Otherwise, the earlier sections tend to get more practice, so this method makes sure you get to everything more or less equally. In fact, it's a good idea to start at random places in the piece and work from there. If you find you have trouble doing that, it means you don't know the piece as well as you could.
What if you have trouble getting yourself to the piano to practice? Even if you love it, you may be a procrastinator and put off your practice time. In that case, find a piece, maybe a short one, that you really love, and play that first. Then once you're sitting there, you'll probably be motivated to continue practicing. If you like to improvise, do that first. Improvising is a great "warm up" because there is (ideally) no stress about "wrong notes" and such. If you are playing some popular music or other non-classical that is less demanding, you could do that first to ease yourself into the practice session.
Remember, you are studying piano because you love music and love the experience of creating music. You know the saying, "if you're not having fun, you're doing it wrong." Don't let practice time become a task. Find ways to keep the practicing playful and fun. See my various posts on how to keep it creative. Avoid any advice or methods that smack of rigidity.
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