Glossary - ADHD, coaching, ND, chronic illness terms
Last updated: May 2026
This glossary defines the terms that show up across Template Drawer products, blog posts, and product pages. Words from the ADHD coaching, neurodivergent self-help, chronic illness, therapy, and parenting worlds, in plain language. Each term has an anchor link (e.g. /pages/glossary#single-next-action) so we can link directly to a definition from any product page or article.
This glossary is descriptive, not prescriptive. If you're a clinician and we've simplified something past usefulness, email wren@templatedrawer.com with a correction and we'll update.
A to C
ADDA
The Attention Deficit Disorder Association. A US-based non-profit that supports adults with ADHD through education, advocacy, and certification of ADHD coaches. ADDA-affiliated coaches typically follow a peer-coaching or ICF-aligned model. add.org.
AuDHD
Informal community term for someone who is both autistic and has ADHD. The two diagnoses co-occur at much higher rates than chance, and the lived experience often does not match the textbook description of either alone. AuDHD adults tend to have an unusual mix of routine-craving and routine-rebellion, which most planners do not handle gracefully.
Body doubling
Working alongside another person, in-person or virtually, to anchor your attention on a task you would otherwise avoid. The other person does not help you, supervise you, or coach you. They just exist in the same room or call while you both work on your own things. For many ADHD adults, body doubling is the single most reliable intervention for task initiation. Tools like Focusmate, Flow Club, and Caveday formalize it; a friend on Zoom does the same thing for free.
Brain fog
A constellation of cognitive symptoms - slowed thinking, word-finding trouble, short-term memory loss, mental fatigue - associated with conditions like Long Covid, ME/CFS, perimenopause, autoimmune flares, severe stress, and concussion recovery. Not a medical diagnosis on its own. Real, common, frequently dismissed.
Crash
The acute worsening of symptoms experienced by people with ME/CFS, Long Covid, and related conditions after exceeding their energy envelope. A crash is delayed (12 to 72 hours) and disproportionate to the trigger. See also post-exertional malaise.
D to I
Dysautonomia
An umbrella term for conditions in which the autonomic nervous system - the system that runs heart rate, blood pressure, digestion, temperature regulation - functions abnormally. POTS is the most commonly named form. Dysautonomia is a frequent feature of Long Covid and ME/CFS.
Energy envelope
The range of activity your body can absorb on a given day without triggering a flare or crash. The concept was popularized in the ME/CFS community by the late Dr. Bruce Campbell and the patient-led pacing movement. The envelope is not fixed. It shrinks during flares and widens slowly during recovery. Staying inside the envelope is the core of pacing. Pre-deciding the size of an action to match your envelope is the core of how several Template Drawer products are built.
Executive function
The cognitive processes that let you plan, prioritize, initiate, sustain, switch between, and complete tasks. Executive function includes working memory, inhibition, cognitive flexibility, emotional regulation, and task initiation. ADHD is, at its core, a chronic executive function difference, not an attention difference. Many Template Drawer products are designed to externalize executive function steps so the user does not need to hold them in working memory.
Flare
An episode of acute worsening of symptoms in a chronic condition. Used across Long Covid, ME/CFS, autoimmune diseases, IBS, migraine, fibromyalgia, and others. Flares often have identifiable triggers (overexertion, infection, hormonal shifts, stress) but sometimes do not. Logging flares in a structured tracker over weeks is one of the most useful patterns of data to bring to a doctor.
IEP
Individualized Education Program. A legally binding document in the US K-12 system that defines special education services, accommodations, goals, and supports for a child with a disability. Required for children covered under IDEA (the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act). IEPs are reviewed annually and updated triennially. Preparing for an IEP meeting as a parent is one of the most underdocumented areas of US parenting, which is why we built a template for it. See also 504 plan.
IFS (Internal Family Systems)
A therapy modality developed by Richard Schwartz that maps the mind as composed of distinct "parts" (protector parts, exiled parts, the Self). Used in couples therapy, trauma therapy, eating disorder treatment, and parts-work coaching. The Template Drawer couples intake template includes an optional IFS framing for therapists trained in it.
Informed consent
The legal and ethical process by which a clinician informs a client about the nature of treatment, its risks and benefits, limits of confidentiality, fees, and the client's right to withdraw. Required in most jurisdictions for therapy and coaching. Informed consent documents are jurisdiction-specific and license-specific. We do not provide them.
Intake
The structured process of collecting information from a new client before or during their first session. In therapy, intake covers presenting concerns, mental health history, current medications, prior treatment, goals, and informed consent. In coaching, intake is lighter but covers goals, prior coaching experience, scope, and agreement.
L to P
Long Covid
A post-viral condition following SARS-CoV-2 infection, characterized by persistent symptoms (fatigue, brain fog, post-exertional malaise, autonomic dysfunction, sleep disturbance, and many others) lasting weeks to years. Also called Post-Acute Sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 (PASC) in clinical literature. Shares significant symptom overlap with ME/CFS.
ME/CFS
Myalgic Encephalomyelitis / Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. A complex chronic illness defined by debilitating fatigue, post-exertional malaise, unrefreshing sleep, and cognitive impairment, often triggered by viral infection. The ME/CFS patient community built much of the pacing knowledge that the Long Covid community now uses.
Next action (or single next action)
See single-next-action. The same concept, sometimes referenced without the qualifier.
ND (neurodivergent)
Short for neurodivergent. An identity term used by people whose brains process information differently from the statistical majority - including ADHD, autistic, dyslexic, dyspraxic, dyscalculic, Tourette's, OCD, and other variations. The complementary term is "neurotypical." The framing is descriptive, not pathologizing.
Pacing
The practice of staying inside your energy envelope on purpose, even on the good days, so the bad days happen less often. Pacing is the opposite of "pushing through." For people with post-exertional malaise, pushing through is actively harmful. Pacing was developed in the ME/CFS community over decades of patient-led research and is now first-line guidance in most Long Covid clinics.
PEM
PHI (Protected Health Information)
US legal term defined by HIPAA for individually identifiable health information held by a covered entity. PHI cannot be stored on standard Notion (or any non-BAA-covered platform) without violating HIPAA. Template Drawer is not a HIPAA-covered entity. We do not provide a BAA.
Post-exertional malaise (PEM)
The defining symptom of ME/CFS and one of the most common features of Long Covid. PEM is a disproportionate worsening of symptoms after physical, cognitive, or emotional exertion, usually delayed by 12 to 72 hours and lasting days to weeks. PEM is not "feeling tired after a workout." It is a system-wide flare triggered by exceeding the energy envelope. PEM is why graded exercise therapy is now considered harmful for this patient group.
POTS
Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome. A form of dysautonomia in which heart rate spikes inappropriately on standing, often accompanied by lightheadedness, fatigue, and brain fog. POTS is common in Long Covid, ME/CFS, hypermobile EDS, and post-viral conditions generally.
Presenting concerns
The reason a client comes to therapy or coaching, in their own words. "We fight about money." "I keep missing deadlines at work." "I cannot get out of bed before noon." Recorded in intake exactly as the client says it, not translated into clinical language. The presenting concern is rarely the actual issue, but it is always the starting point.
R to Z
RSD (rejection sensitive dysphoria)
An informal community term for the extreme emotional pain experienced by many people with ADHD in response to perceived rejection, criticism, or failure. Not in the DSM as a separate diagnosis. The phenomenon is real and well-documented in ADHD clinical literature, even if the label is contested.
504 plan (Section 504)
A formal accommodation plan under Section 504 of the US Rehabilitation Act, available to K-12 students with a disability that substantially limits a major life activity. Less protective than an IEP, but easier to obtain. Common for students with ADHD, anxiety, chronic illness, or learning differences who do not qualify for special education under IDEA. Reviewed annually.
Single-next-action method
A client-tracking discipline used in several Template Drawer products, especially C2-08 (the ADHD Coach Client Tracker). Each client on your dashboard has exactly one open next-action at a time - not a list, not a backlog, not stages. One field. One sentence. Verb first. When you complete it, you replace it with the next one. The discipline is the product: it externalizes the question "what do I owe this person next?" so working memory does not have to hold it. See the full pillar post for the method in detail.
SOAP notes
A clinical documentation format: Subjective (client report), Objective (clinician observations), Assessment (diagnostic impression), Plan (next steps). Standard in many therapy, medical, and clinical contexts. Not used in coaching. Template Drawer products are not SOAP-format tools.
Spoons (spoon theory)
A metaphor coined by Christine Miserandino to describe finite daily energy in chronic illness. You have a fixed number of "spoons" each day. Each activity costs spoons. When you run out, you stop, regardless of how much you wanted to do. Spoon theory is the colloquial cousin of the energy envelope concept, popular in chronic illness, fibromyalgia, lupus, ME/CFS, and Long Covid communities.
Time blindness
A common ADHD trait in which a person has difficulty perceiving the passage of time, estimating how long tasks will take, or holding future events in mental focus. Time blindness is the reason "five-minute jobs" can take three hours and Wednesday evening can feel identical to Sunday morning. External time-tracking, calendar blocking, and visual timers are the standard workarounds.
Working memory
The cognitive resource that holds information actively in mind for short periods, like a phone number you are about to dial or the three things you need to remember to pick up at the store. Working memory is a finite, drainable resource, and one of the most reliably impaired functions in ADHD. Externalizing items out of working memory (onto paper, into Notion, into a phone widget) is the single highest-leverage intervention for executive function difficulty.
This glossary is a living document. New terms get added when they show up across multiple products or articles. Suggestions and corrections to wren@templatedrawer.com.
Wren - keeper of the drawer.