I’m at the point in the Picross that puzzles are taking me over ten minutes, so I’m slowing down for now. My secret is a big podcast backlog and a willingness to quit and try again later the second I hit a roadblock.
Although…. Picross S 9 has a new feature called Rewind that step-by-step, mark by mark reviews the last 100 actions you’ve done on the puzzle. I’ve used it successfully a few times (and it makes speculating when I’m stuck more rewarding since I don’t have to restart if I mess it all up).
That’s the order I do, too! Page of regular, all clip cross, another page, etc. Then I alternate between the 30x30s and color Picross until I get too bored/frustrated to spend an hour plus on a puzzle. I then clear out the color Picross and move on to another game.
Rewind allows you to still get the no assist clears. It would have been great if they introduced it earlier.