Redbird
I do feel your understandable cry for help has not been addressed as simply as it might.
There are two tasks going on when you fly a circuit – handling the aircraft and operating the aircraft. The two things are in no way connected and each can be mastered as a separate topic before they are then combined.
Handling the aircraft is about controlling the speed, height, flight path, size and shape of pattern, use of flaps and the associate power settings, the flare and so on.
All the other stuff is about operating the aircraft - checks, dealing with aircraft systems, lookout and ATC matters.
Personally if I had a student who was struggling I would try and decide which of the two tasks was giving them the most trouble and I would then carry out that task leaving the student free to concentrate on the other. Once my student was happy with one task I would take that over and get them to do the other.
If in doubt (both tasks are giving you problems) try and master the handling first until you can ‘fly’ the circuit really well with your instructor doing all the operating stuff. Then ask him to ‘fly’ the circuit while you master the operational tasks.
This is aimed at avoiding that overloaded feeling which results in people making a mess of both tasks and therefore making little apparent progress. Especially if they are faced with long periods between lessons.
So far as your point about what to think about between lessons the above may give you some food for thought. It is perfectly possible to draw a circuit pattern out on a sheet of paper and annotate it with the information to carry out EITHER the handing OR the operation. Use a separate drawing for each topic as an aid to memorising the info.
A final tip would be to remember that at different parts of the circuit the priority you have to give to each task will vary. For example in the flare over the numbers you should not let ATC chatter distract you, but just before you turn base news of three aircraft ahead when you only thought there were two may have to be dealt with at once.
JF