A structured look at the stretch since your last session: what was being asked of you, what your brain had available, where it got stuck, and what already helped.
The premise of this page. Difficulty is treated here as a mismatch between the demands of a situation and the capacity available to meet them, rather than as a personal failing. Both sides of that equation can change. Naming the mismatch precisely is what makes it workable.
Nothing you enter is saved, sent, or stored. This page runs entirely in your browser and clears when you close the tab. Use Print or save if you want to keep a copy or bring one to session. Please do not enter protected health information such as full names, dates of birth, contact details, or record numbers. This page is not a clinical record.
Load
Demand and capacity
Rated separately on purpose. A hard week can mean the demands were unusually high, the available capacity was unusually low, or both. Those point to different responses.
What was being asked of youLight → Relentless
What you had available to meet itDepleted → Full tank
Rate both to see how the two lined up.
Sticky points
Where things got stuck
These are executive and regulation demands, not character traits. Naming which one was in play matters, because starting, switching, and stopping each need a different kind of support.
Which of these came up? Select any that fit.
Getting startedSwitching between tasksStopping once absorbedMaking a decisionHolding things in mindKeeping track of timeSettling a strong feelingA thought loop that would not let goReading how something landedAsking for what I neededRecovering after something hard
Effort cost
Performing and recovering
Sustained masking and compensation carry a measurable cost, and the cost is often invisible from the outside precisely because the performance worked. Recovery time is not indulgence. It is the other half of the equation.
How much of the week was spent performing or compensatingBarely → Constantly
Was there recovery time on the other side of it?
Yes, and it helped
Some, but not enough
None to speak of
Working strategies
What already helped
Most adults arrive with strategies they have built themselves and do not get credit for. Naming what worked makes it repeatable, and it is usually faster to expand an existing strategy than to install a new one.
Anything here that helped, even once?
Moving my bodyGetting it out of my head and onto paperWorking alongside someoneBreaking it into a smaller first stepSensory adjustmentTime in an interest that absorbs meSaying no or leaving earlyAsking someone directly for helpAn external reminder or alarmRest without earning itMedication or treatment as prescribedA script I had prepared
Fit and access
What the environment was doing
Some of the load is not coming from inside. When an environment creates friction, adjusting the environment is a legitimate intervention rather than a workaround, and it is often the faster lever.
Where did the friction come from?
Noise, light, or sensory loadUnclear expectationsTime pressure or deadlinesConstant interruptionsUnplanned changesSocial or communication demandBeing misread by othersPhysical space or setupAdmin and paperworkNo control over my schedule
Session focus
What to use this session for
Sessions move faster when the agenda is set by the person living it. This does not lock anything in. It gives the hour a starting direction.
Session summary
Fills in as you go. Print this page, or read it out at the start of session.
Load this weekNot rated yet
Sticky pointsNone selected yet
Effort and recoveryNot rated yet
What is already workingNone selected yet
Environmental frictionNone selected yet
Focus for todayNot set yet
What this page is built on
This is a reflection aid, not an assessment. It produces no score and no cutoff. The structure follows a small number of well-established ideas in neurodivergence research and affirming practice:
· Difficulty is better predicted by the fit between environmental demand and current capacity than by symptom count alone, which is why the two are rated separately here.
· Executive demands are distinct from one another. Initiation, task switching, inhibition, working memory, and emotional regulation are separable, and each responds to different supports.
· Sustained camouflaging and compensation are associated with exhaustion, burnout, and poorer mental health outcomes in autistic and ADHD adults, and the cost is frequently missed because the performance itself looks like coping.
· Adults referred late, particularly women and adults whose childhood presentation was read as anxiety, defiance, or personality, often arrive with substantial self-built strategies that go unnamed in assessment.
· Environmental adjustment is a legitimate first-line intervention rather than an accommodation of last resort.
This page does not diagnose, screen, or measure severity, and it is not a clinical record. For the research behind the F-O-C-U-S framework and identification gaps in ADHD, see The evidence behind FOCUS.