Working with a Coach
You don't need a coach to use ATEND. But if you work with one — an ADHD coach, a therapist, a psychiatrist, a trusted advisor — the coach dashboard changes what's possible in your sessions together. This chapter is for both of you.
The problem coaching is trying to solve
In a typical coaching session, a significant portion of the time is spent on reconstruction — trying to piece together what actually happened the previous week from the client's memory. The client remembers the Thursday crisis. They forget the three productive mornings. They overestimate how much time they spent on the thing they feel guilty about and underestimate the time they gave to what actually moved the needle.
The coach is working from the same fog. Both parties are building a picture from unreliable materials. The conversation that should be about pattern recognition and strategy adjustment ends up being detective work. By the time the actual coaching starts, half the session is gone.
This matters for a specific reason that's well-documented in the ADHD clinical literature: the perception gap. The ADHD partner in a coaching relationship genuinely believes they're doing more than the coach observes — and the coach genuinely sees less than is happening. Both are telling the truth from their cognitive vantage point. The shared data doesn't resolve this by declaring a winner. It gives both parties something real to look at together.
What the coach sees
The coach dashboard is a web-based view, separate from the ATEND app. It's organized into five panels.
The flags your coach uses to prepare
Panel 2 is what transforms a coaching session from reactive to strategic. The system does the pattern detection automatically — the coach arrives knowing what's worth discussing.
The suggested prompts are drawn from the ATEND coaching methodology. They're suggestions — the coach is always in control of the conversation. The system surfaces the data. The coach brings the judgment.
What the coach can and cannot see
The dashboard shows patterns and metrics — never content. The distinction matters.
| Data type | Visible to coach |
|---|---|
| Task titles | — titles are action statements |
| Project outcome statements | |
| Calendar event titles | |
| Hat names and activity levels | — except hats you've hidden |
| Big Three outcomes (text) | |
| Completion counts, streak data, deferral counts | |
| Task notes | |
| Inbox item content | |
| Calendar event descriptions | |
| Daily close one-sentence notes | |
| Voice note content |
Your coach can see that your USCIS project is behind pace and has been deferred four times. They cannot see what your task notes say. Content belongs to you. Patterns belong to the conversation.
Hat privacy controls
By default, all hats except Medical are visible to your coach at the pattern and metric level. Medical is hidden by default because health information warrants extra discretion — you can enable it if your coach relationship calls for it.
Any hat can be toggled hidden from Settings → Coaching → Hat Visibility. When a hat is hidden, your coach sees only "[Hat hidden by client]" — they know a hat exists but see none of its data. You can change these settings at any time.
Inviting a coach
The coach cannot make any changes to your system. The dashboard is read-only without exception. Your coach can observe, note, and discuss — they cannot add tasks, change your MIT, modify projects, or touch any of your data. You are always in full control.
For coaches reading this
The ATEND coach dashboard gives you something most coaching relationships lack: an objective behavioral record of what actually happened between sessions. Not what your client remembers — what the system measured.
The most valuable shift this enables is in where the session starts. Instead of spending the first twenty minutes reconstructing the week, you begin with the data already on the table. The flags have already identified what's worth exploring. The Big Three panel shows whether your client's weekly intentions are connected to their daily actions. The hat activity view shows patterns across four weeks that neither of you would see in a single conversation.
A few things worth knowing about how to use it:
Use the flags as starting points, not an agenda. The system flags what it can detect algorithmically — a task deferred four times, a hat with no activity for a month. It doesn't know why. The why is your territory.
The summary line is descriptive, not evaluative. "Difficult week" means the metrics were low — not that your client failed. Many difficult weeks have important reasons behind them that the data can't see.
The session log creates continuity. If a task was deferred four times last week and you raised it in session, check the following week whether it moved. The log tracks what flags were active at the time of each session, so you can follow threads across weeks without relying on your own memory.
Your private notes are yours alone. Notes you mark as private are never visible to your client. Shared notes — observations and commitments you agree to document together — are visible to both.
The system doesn't make coaching decisions. It surfaces data and offers suggested prompts from the ATEND methodology. Whether and how you use them is entirely your judgment. The dashboard is a preparation tool, not a session script.
Do you need a coach?
No. ATEND works as a standalone system and is designed to work well without any coaching relationship. Many people use it independently and find it transforms how they manage their time and attention.
That said: a skilled ADHD coach working with real behavioral data is one of the most effective combinations in the space. The system provides the external scaffolding. The coach provides the pattern recognition, the strategic adjustment, the accountability, and the relationship that makes behavior change actually stick.
If you're considering working with an ADHD coach, look for someone who has specific training in ADHD coaching (as distinct from general life coaching), who is familiar with the clinical research on ADHD executive function, and whose approach is collaborative rather than prescriptive. The coach's job is to help you understand your own patterns and develop your own strategies — not to tell you what to do.
The ATEND methodology was designed with coaching in mind. Every metric the dashboard surfaces, every flag it generates, every panel it shows was built to support that conversation. Whether you pursue coaching now, later, or never — the system is ready.