People may disagree with me here but I tend to look at things in blocks of 2,4 or 8. So a pattern may be 4 or 8 bars long and may be repeated 2 or 4 times. When shifting from one block to another "articulate" the shift with a silence (drop a beat on a drum for instance) or add a stab sound (cymbal crash etc).
What do you think, good advice or bad ?
Andy