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It seems quite simple to allocate 10 - 15 minutes in the morning for a piano. At least much easier than to find later time for a longer session during the day.
There is a similar (and very good) "ten minute" question for guitar but most of answers there are instrument specific. Would it be possible to get recommendations on how to use short but daily time for a piano the most efficiently? Especially, does it make more sense to learn new thing or just play the known pieces?
I´m a professional guitarist and teacher. My opinion is that you should keep the practice challenging enough so you can have small victories in that short period of time. You should link what you learnt today to what you learnt yesterday. You should advance everyday, and review the music you have learnt. So if you played an old piece it perfect the first time why should you repeat it? But if you made a mistake try to go for the cause and solve it. Do you have a related mistake in other pieces? You can use your ten minutes to solve that problem, you could create exercises that address that same problem. As you see you can address the practice from many points of view. Get creative and keep your practice varied.
I'm a fairly early piano player, so I usually dedicate about 20 mins to practice.
I've found that the best thing to do is to timebox your playing time into sections, so for example 5 mins on finger exercises and technical studies, then 5 mins on a piece you're working on at the moment.
Schmitt's Preparatory Exercises for the piano is my choice for exercises. 5-10 mins of proper practice a day from Scmitt has been in my opinion the best use of my time, because it's all about correct basic technique, which is the most important skill for a beginner.
I've been playing for fifteen years, and I've come to appreciate the value of relaxing and setting an intention before sitting down. It's so easy to sit down and play something you know, but if you're not mentally prepared you're much more likely to play sloppy and form bad habits.
For me, the first thing I do when I sit down is make sure each finger "understands" what it feels like to strike the key properly. Once you have established finger action, focus on relaxing the arms and allowing them to move gracefully to make the finger action as graceful and effortless as possible.
Finally, you can either play a short piece you know slowly or work on a select few measures you've chosen ahead of time.
Bottom line - attention is the most important aspect.
