A great way to start your practice sessions is by practicing your scales. Why? They're a great warm up for your fingers, and your brain. They not only get the circulation (blood flowing) in your fingers, they get you thinking about how music sounds and how it is structured.
I usually run through a set of seven "scale forms" for one particular key, but it doesn't matter too much what scales you use as long as you keep the following principles in mind:
1) You should be relaxed.
Don't push too hard with your fingers or over-exert yourself in any way. Try to make your playing as precise, but relaxed, as possible. Don't force any movements while going through your scale(s). Correct your movements if needed, but do it in a very deliberate way.
2) You should make sure to use all of your fingers.
As I said, use whatever scales you'd like, but ideally you should use one (or more) that uses all four fingers on your fretting hand (in particular one that uses the pinky, as it is often neglected by students).
3) You should use your brain.
Name the notes of the scales occasionally as you play. This will help you learn the fretboard. If you don't know the note names, you can look it up on one of my pages about the note names:
Notes on the Guitar Fretboard
Notes on the Bass Fretboard
Notes on the Ukelele Fretboard
The point is that you should be learning something new about how the guitar (bass, uke) works. Ideally you should know all of the names of the notes on your fretboard. Why? You will actually learn songs more quickly because you'll know what it means for a song to be in a particular key. In other words, you will understand music more easily and learn it more quickly because you'll be able.
Warm up with scales!
Start with a scale or two every time you play your instrument. Your fingers and your brain will thank you!
Some sample scales:
Here's one for bass:
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