I too always go to the left.
I most frequently play two players, my friend and I each running two heroes. I always run the villain and my friend runs the Environment.
I normally “stack” my two heroes, effectively having one row for each, and play the one on top first. I find it more organized/less crowded that way. My friend usually goes with a “column” approach for his two heroes, playing the one on his right before moving to the one of his left.
I once played a solo game with 4 heroes: I lay everything out on a playmat as if it were a normal 4-player game, and just rotated the playmat counter-clockwise all game.