This year I started running a lot more one-shots and a drop-in open table games - both of which being playtypes where session discipline is much more of a thing. Campaigns are forgiving; wherever you need to down tools you can pick up again. For one-shots or episodic play, if you don't know you'll have the same players again you need to come to some kind of finish. A lot of the advice you'll find out there for convention gaming also applies here.
By the numbers these are observations from 34 episodic game sessions (12 Spelljammer Academy (SJA), 22 Southern Reaches) and 10 Brancalonia one-shots. With one exception of a session that wrapped early, Spelljammer Academy (episodic) and Brancalonia (one-shots) ran 4.5-5 hours face to face through my local games society RPGVienna. Southern Reaches (open-table episodics) were 2.5-3 hours run online, with one exception that ran long. Below are tricks I use to run to time - this is no grand theory of game running, just some stuff I try to keep in mind.
First, and most obvious, watch the clock and gauge against how much there is left to do. For the Brancalonia and SJA games there was typically a session plot; a couple of things that needed to happen and broadly a plan for the session.
I recently learned the useful term 'shoeleather' for the not interesting bits between plot driving elements of film and TV. Good to have in mind for spotting what are the core bits for a session to make sense and what is filler (however fun) that could be scrapped to save time if needed.
Before a session I write up my own timeline of the session - which I often find does not match to the adventure as written with some sections of an adventure actually having one or two 'scenes' to it that are hard to spot playing directly from the book. On the inverse, putting together my own session outline (for SJA) can often lead to me focusing on 'what they do when they get there' and failing to account for the mission brief, voyaging and other time devourers at the front. Either way I find it helpful to segment the session and spot the bits that can be lifted in/out to manage time.
Throughout the session keep things moving - avoid the 'failed roll choke-points' - consider just giving the players the info, they will likely argue about it and head off in the wrong direction anyway but let them make informed flailing. I am less and less a fan of red herrings, more and more a subscriber to the idea of the giving the players all the info and spending the time on their decisions with that info, rather than struggling to get the info in the first place.
As just mentioned launching the session and getting the party on the road to the adventure can eat a ton of time - consider cutting straight to the briefing, or give the session hook as narration. You have to balance this against buy-in - particularly with players new to the table or just the campaign, some element of giving them a chance to say yes to the adventure is needed for them not to feel utterly railroaded. With the established settings, returning players of the episodic games you have more leeway to just say 'you got the usual orders and are now on your way to...'
For 5e, combat is your big time devourer, even a standard 3-rounds-and-down foe can take 40 mins; add wrap up and you want to hit your 'finale' combat an hour before your intended finish. Should the players utterly crush the encounter, you can linger over the journey home and victorious return if you need to fill some time.
Call time on over-planning - feel free to explicitly say 'we've got a lot to get through, you've got to get going'. For certain players who want to be sure they're equipped for the job, I will let them "take a minute" where they declare they spent a block of time making sure they have a 'mcguffin' to be produced later that represents the planning that got glossed over.
For the one-shots, which were fully player lead, I would more strictly time box the end, checking in on what they were trying to get done ~90 mins out if they were not obviously on the way there, then giving 45-60 mins for whatever major concluding challenge there was. Prior to those deadlines, they could noodle around open world style if they wished.
All together to say even for a low prep session, have a thought about how long things typically take with your group (rules familiarity, habits around planning and discussions) and block out the time appropriately before the session. In the session, watch the clock and feel free to give them a nudge along explicitly if things are in danger of running aground.
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