OMG thank you for the question!! 🦦🦦 WELCOME, HAPPY TO HAVE YOU!

the simple answer is "what brings me joy", but lately I'm coming to discover my sorta unofficial official hierarchy in my heart. I use two tools: https://x.com/mika_enstars https://enstarsmasterlist.github.io/featureidol and a super awesome format for planning out translations that https://x.com/azurecrystalz made. It's like a table where you can track story details, your TL progress, the stage of proofing it's in, I owe them my life. While I was divvying up stories for the rest of the year with my https://x.com/310mc1, this is sorta how things shook out. Think of them as concurrent thought processes:

CHARACTERS
Shinobu, Keito - I'd generally say these guys are my top priority. Keito is my absolute favorite, but a lot of his content and stories do have existing translations or current updated TL efforts that I can kinda put him on the backburner while I focus on Shinobun. I'm currently trying to fill out the sub stories [!] they have missing on the masterlist.
Anything with Kanata and Keito together - These typically jump up to the top of my queue as soon as they happen. What's funny is basically a lot of my content in general starts as Kanata + Keito ONLY, but if it's something that all of AKARYUSEI share together, I feel bad and just include all of them (the color palettes were originally just Kanata and Keito, for example). Anyways, current TLs in the works for this section include Ukiyo Air Ride (they don't interact but they're in the story together, and I like how they both are authoritative) and Intelligence Cross-Scout Chapter 4 (They both appear, and one line exchange is enough for me to learn Yuzuru, Kaoru and Jun)
AKARYUSEI - I don't know if I have a ratio of AKTK to RST that I consider "AKARYUSEI", but basically if the story has member(s) of one group with member(s) of the others. Onigashima, Hanafuda, etc. I've been getting better at translating Tetora and Shinobu specifically because of this (god speed Kuro and Souma, you will never be easy)
Kanata - I (mostly) enjoy translating Kanata, but he has a lot of content from other translators that I'm not in a rush to TL his stuff.

TL Availability
I have very, very, very poor memory, so a lot of why I translate is because I want to remember the things I read about my favorites. If a translation already exists, it doesn't necessarily mean I won't do it. I just don't need to put it at the front of my queue. The https://enstarsmasterlist.github.io/featureidol helps me see which stories haven't been done so I can prioritize them.

Does it exist in ENGstars already?
This absolutely does not matter to me. I read Many Minds, One Flower on ENGstars but knew it was my Life's Purpose to TL it for myself. Kinda goes with the point above, but some day, I do want to TL things like Scarlet Halloween and One Man Army.

Following wherever the story takes me
I also translate in tangents, hehe. Surprise, surprise, when you translate the first time Souma and Shinobu meet (for example), it becomes relevant and mentioned in concurrent stories, with inside jokes you wouldn't otherwise know. Whenever I run across them in TLs, it just makes my heart happy. I love capturing that continuity and knowing where it is, it makes the universe feel more alive if that makes sense.

───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────
From Samurai and Ninjas, which takes place in ! Spring

[Shinobu enters the scene]
Souma: Huh? --A scoundrel!
Shinobu: Eyaaa?! Wh-Wh– Why did a table get cut to pieces in front of me?! I-I– I'm definitely not a suspicious person! If you could just spare me my life…?!

From Scroll of the Elements, which takes place in ! Autumn

[Shinobu enters the scene]
Souma: Hm, a scoundrel! I jest… Sengoku’s completely a ninja now~♪
Shinobu: I've been a ninja from the beginning, haven't I~?

───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────

From Samurai and Ninjas

Shinobu: Also, here in Garden Terrace... I was doing a little fly-catching.
Souma: Well, now that I see it closely, it’s flypaper! You— Don't show those things while we’re eating! It’s unsanitary, I'll lose my appetite! Are you going to eat it? Do you eat flies? As I thought, I can't understand ninjas...!
Shinobu: Hey, please don't draw your sword?! I’m not going to eat them~! These flies are meant to be frog food.
Souma: Fr-Frogs? Are you raising them as pets?
Shinobu: They’re more like friends than pets to raise~ Ninjas use dogs, birds, frogs, and the like.

From Shinobu Management Story 6, with Souma

Souma: Hm…? Is that you there, Sengoku? Are you playing around with a bug net?
Shinobu: Oh, Kanzaki-dono! I wouldn’t call it playing around! I’m in the midst of catching frog food!
Souma: I see, come to think of it, you look after frogs, don’t you?
Shinobu: Indeed I do! I'm glad that you remember what I said before~♪
───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────

I'm currently working on a Broadcasting Committee story, so I'm also sorta kinda doing a few other idol stories and scout stories related to that. My brain goes OOH, but if you do THAT ONE too it's an even MORE cohesive story, and then I end up with like, 3 more than I originally had down. The same will probably happen to Marine Bio and maybe the student council if it's Keito and Mao, or Shinobu and Souma.

But yeah, long story short, the points above are the seeds of where I start, and I see where my heart takes me after. THANK YOU FOR ASKING THIS WAS FUN TO ANSWER!! ❤️