OK, this is a question I've always been too embarrassed to ask, because it's so basic, but here goes anyhow...
How tight do people pull their laces when tying them up on bushwalking boots?
When I first started walking, I used to pull them all as tight as I could get them to provide what I though would be the best ankle protection (like I used to with ice skates as a kid). After several years of this, I accidentally discovered that my feet got a lot less tired (on the soles, as well as the tops) if the laces weren't so tight, so I started doing them "fairly tight", instead of "very tight".
I'm now getting to the stage where I'm starting to experiment a bit more, and tying the laces even looser still. It sure is more comfortable. I figure that they only have to be tight enough so that the foot doesn't move around inside the boot enough to rub (should especially avoid lifting/rubbing of the heel). For me, the optimum now seems to be to have the laces quite loose at the bottom (above the foot), and quite tight at the top (around the ankle and leg).
This would have been a lot easier in my old Scarpas which had a lace locking eyelet at the ankle to allow two different tensions on the foot and the leg (which is how I got the idea that different tensions might be worth trying).
So am I doing this correctly now, or am I going to sprain my ankle, or do myself some other injury? How tight do other people do up their boot laces?