At rehearsal, don’t just run everything down, especially if you have limited time. (You should always limit your time, but that’s another topic.) I wouldn’t even suggest you necessarily start at the beginning of the song and go through.
Start with the most difficult/complex/intricate part to get together. For vocals, that may mean wherever it breaks into harmony. For the band, if there is some weird counting or some hits, that is where you begin. Get that out of the way, then go back and do the rest. If I know a song is going to build through a section, I’ll sometimes start right at the big arrival point, have the band hit it, and THEN say “All right. This is where we are going. That right there has to be the BIGGEST part of the song. Let’s go back and get there.”
The thing where it comes to rehearsal is that you want to make sure your “must do” areas have been touched on. The “easy” parts – even if they’re not completely precise – will likely come together. The “hard” parts are where things are most likely to fall apart. Get it out of the way.
Don’t waste time. While I warned against autopilot a couple of days ago, there is value in being able to say from time to time “How do you feel about such-and-such song? Are you good if we don’t touch it and just sing it cold? Fine.”
