My normal process is to plan a session and then have it almost immediately derailed through a mixture of distractions, roleplay (or skipped roleplay), and sequence breaking. The planning done for a single session generally correlates to either 1/2 of a session or 2-3 sessions of useful content.
This time though, they actually did the things I had planned. All of the activities and events came in useful, and they didn't even try to set any of it on fire. Everyone's character made use of their bit of time in the limelight, and I managed to give almost all the NPCs voices, including the spontaneous ones. We even finished the session exactly where I wanted, with the first combat of the module I'm using
Conceptually I'm aware that there's a nonzero chance of it happening at some point, I'm just a little shocked it's happened to me.
I also want to run my own game.
What other tips and tricks do you have for first-timers?
Top piece of advice I can give to a first time GM is grab a game and run it. A few one shots or short adventures will let you get to grips with being a GM/storyteller independent of a specific system, so you can work out what you do well before starting a full campaign. Beyond that: