The coaching action plan template as an Ember Console box: agreed actions, checked against your own rule

A coaching action plan template needs four cells per row: the action, who does it, by when, and what you check next session. In markdown it fits on half a page, and you fill it in by hand after every call.

Ember Console, the session-report builder I build for coaches, is in closed beta. In it, that half page is one box of your template: a prompt asking for the actions you agreed, and a test it has to pass.

The prompt takes a minute to write, and the test under it decides what the client reads.

How do I write a coaching action plan?

One row per action, four cells, and the fourth cell is yours rather than the client’s.

Action	Who does it	By when	What I check next session
Write the week’s three tasks on Sunday	Client	Every Sunday	Whether the list exists
Ask the manager for a review slot	Client	9 Oct	What the manager said
Send today’s summary	Me	3 Oct	That it arrived

The public Google Doc that ranks for that phrase asks what will be done, who will do it, by when, and what you need to finish the step. I swap the last one for what I check next session, the part I would otherwise forget.

One r/lifecoaching poster keeps every recap to “three things: what they realized, what they committed to, and the biggest obstacle.” Where it sits afterwards is another question, and I went through the systems in accountability coaching systems compared.

What is an example of an action plan box in Ember Console?

It is the table above, with a prompt over it and a test under it.

1. Put your letterhead in the template.
2. Pick the box the plan goes in.
3. Its prompt: list the actions agreed this session.
4. Its test: every action names who and when.
5. Run the session through your AI.

Every time an AI builds the report it gets those prompts and the eval system, and reworks each box until it passes the standard you set, which is the box system. So a row with no name and no date goes round again before you read it.

Rewrite a row and the next report starts from that rewrite. The Ember landing page puts it this way: “Refine the report directly in Ember’s editor, and your next report will be created with those past edits and preferences already in mind.” The AI doing the writing is the one you use: ChatGPT, Claude or Littlebird.

What is not stated yet?

Three things about the action plan box in Ember Console I have not published.

1. Whether a box’s prompt can read last session’s actions.
2. What a test may check: length, wording, a date, a rule you typed.
3. Whether boxes can be added, removed or reordered.

I want the first one answered first, because a box that starts blank every fortnight leaves you as the only memory.

Run one session through it and read the plan as your client will. A row with no name and no date is not an action, and the test is what catches it.

Questions people ask next?

What are the 5 steps of an action plan?

Asana’s free action plan template lists five parts: goal setting, task lists, resources, deadlines and milestones, and a review. A coaching version folds those into one row per action, with your own check last.

Is a coaching action plan the same as a coaching plan?

No. Paperbell’s coaching plan guide puts the plan above the session: the structure you and the client agree before sessions start. The action plan changes every session, and names who does what by when.