Persona time slots and the three part structure of an RPG session

My group tends to experiment with different systems and techniques. One day we decided to try playing some Chronicles of Darkness, and our GM tried experimenting with a mechanic inspired by Persona - "time slots". The idea boiled down to this - every day was broken into a few time slots, and in each time slot our vampire characters could do one thing - go hunt for some blood, engage with their Touchstones, research something, etc. After one time slot where our PCs each did their own thing we would meet up and usually spend one time slot working out problems from last night, before the final time slot where we'd go out and have "the big set piece" of the session. We didn't realise it at the time, but we did find some pretty neat pacing structure for any session.

When we played through some Mouse Guard, the game came with its own pacing - the GM Turn and the Player Turn. In general, the session would start at the GM Turn, in which we'd be presented a challenge that we'd have to overcome - perhaps we'd be travelling between towns and dealing with a snowstorm, only to find out we needed to venture further into the blizzard to find some missing mice. During that set piece, every player would be accumulating "checks" for overcoming challenges with a hindrance. Finally, after that GM Turn was over, our characters would have some downtime to spend those checks to resupply, heal up and interact with NPCs in a more relaxed manner. In essence, it was a similar structure to what we have done in CoD, but in reverse - you'd first have the big set piece, and then you'd have the smaller stuff.

As it turned out, that pacing felt off - you'd usually start the game off with the action and then peter off at the end with things that didn't seem that meaningful in comparison. You might have the characters having a thousand-yard stare after fighting a band of weasels and expecting the players to have a follow-up. At least having this contrast allowed us to refine our approach.

So all in all, here is our time slot technique for any RPG. First, you start the session off with small, personal things. Let each player take initiative and roleplay some small thing they do during their morning as it were. Keep it light, don't do too many rolls, and keep it small - no more than two players in a scene ideally. After everyone has done their thing, let everyone meet up and make preparations. Discuss whatever needs discussing, figure out a plan of action, maybe do some small follow-up to something. Then, in the third part of the session have your big set piece - do battle, solve mysteries, engage with the world. After the climax of the session, when the big adventure is over, have a short moment for decompression and end the session soon after. Leave on a high note and give players time to formulate their plans for the next cycle.

This structure should help you transition from everyone settling at the table and still talking about things outside of the game, through the light things where people settle into their roles and get maximum focus right where the meat of the game is.