The most definitive starting point was on the far left. The Yellow 4 and Teal 4 clues are both located in Column 1. A shape must contain its clue, and since there's no "Column 0," any shape starting in Column 1 cannot be wider than 1 cell. This forces both the Yellow 4 and Teal 4 to be 1x4 vertical strips. With no other clues in that column, they stack neatly to fill most of it.

With Column 1 solved, it created a solid wall. The two Red 3 clues in Column 2 were now pressed against this wall. As a prime number, '3' can only be a 1x3 strip. Since they couldn't extend left into the solved column, they were both forced to be 1x3 vertical strips within Column 2.

This chain reaction flowed directly to the Dark Blue 6 in Column 3. Hemmed in by the solved Red shapes in Column 2, its only logical placement was as a tall 1x6 vertical strip. In three steps, the entire left side of the grid was nearly solved.

The Green 4 (top left) and Magenta 4 (bottom right) were then forced into 2x2 squares. They were placed in areas where a 1x4 strip would either collide with an existing shape or run off the board. This is a common pattern: as the grid fills, the flexible shapes (like 4s and 6s) lose their ambiguity.

From there, the remaining pieces like the Orange 6 and Gray 6 were placed by filling the largest remaining empty spaces, a straightforward packing exercise once the key structures were in place.