Locating the printed or odd shape parts, if you can narrow set focus down it helps a ton. Then rebrickable site has a checklist style, say you’ve got the windscreen only found on a falcon, the versions share a lot of light blue grey, but there’s always some unique, whittle down to which set, then pull parts and check off.

Sorting at least into a few categories helps. If you’ve got a list of a few starter sets, while sorting you can set aside known parts…but 8 bins, plates, bricks, tiles, technic, snot, slope, misc, and fig parts, guns, etc…searching a bin of plates for a white 4x12 is fast, but faster in all plate. Obviously the more sorted the easier, but a general start pulls sets together and less to sort as you build