Hi Brian,
Interesting question.
Depending on the ground situation, street pavement or in the unlevel terrain, I pre-determine the shooting height I want (I mostly compose by eye, and adjust the camera position/focal length to match perspective and field of view).
Given that, on my Gitzo 3 XLS series, I extend the lowest sections roughly to the desired length (if any) to reach the final height when the upper sections are fully extended. I then unlock the 2 upper sections per leg in one twist, fully extend and lock them, takes less than 10 seconds per leg.
Then, with the legs all extended to roughly give the desired height when spread fully on the first or second stop, I may tweak the angle of one leg, or shorten (usually) one leg, a bit to get the bubble level roughly centered. When shooting panos or stitched-for-resolution shots or architecture, I do the final leveling with my Easy Leveler II, in that case either by Live View for vertical alignment, or with a digital level if there are not enough structures to assist. Otherwise I'll use a ball head or a geared head, depending on the shooting scenario, for the final adjustments.
Cheers,
Bart