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Coaching approaches

Moment-timed coaching

Moment-timed coaching decides when a piece of support is offered, not only what it is. It takes its design from just-in-time adaptive interventions, a research framework for mobile health in which support is delivered in daily life at the moments a person is most likely to use it. The evidence rating rests on research into just-in-time adaptive interventions, the mobile-health design this approach borrows from. That research includes trial designs and one intervention for physical activity run within a trial. None of the sources checked tests a coach timing support this way in conversation, so the approach as a whole is untested.

The principles underneath

Decision points

Support is aimed at the moments when a choice or a slip is most likely, rather than at a fixed time of day. Nahum-Shani and colleagues frame the goal as giving the right type and amount of support at the right time (Nahum-Shani et al., 2017).

Tailoring signals

The coach decides what to offer from a small set of signals agreed in advance, such as a goal you have named, a recent setback, or a level of strain you report. The offer changes when those signals change, rather than staying the same for everyone. Nahum-Shani and colleagues describe this as adapting to an individual's changing internal and contextual state (Nahum-Shani et al., 2017).

Receptivity

A prompt only helps when you can use it. The approach treats your readiness in that moment as part of the decision, and it holds back when you are not open to support. Nahum-Shani and colleagues describe the person's changing internal state as a central input to this decision (Nahum-Shani et al., 2017).

What it is

Moment-timed coaching plans when a coach or coaching tool reaches you. Instead of relying only on a fixed weekly session, it looks for the points in your day when a small piece of support is most likely to land: a decision coming up, a sign that you are under strain, or a moment when you are open to another angle. Some versions use phone prompts or wearable signals. The same principles can work in a live conversation, where you and the coach agree in advance which moments matter.

Its guiding question is what should happen next, and at which point. The approach is best understood as a set of design principles drawn from research on mobile health, not as a single method with a fixed script. This page describes the approach. It does not describe how any particular product delivers it.

Where it comes from

The design comes from just-in-time adaptive interventions (JITAIs). Inbal Nahum-Shani and colleagues set out the key components and design principles for mobile health, describing support that adapts to a person's changing internal and contextual state (Nahum-Shani et al., 2017). Earlier, Heron and Smyth (2010) reviewed ecological momentary interventions, which deliver support during everyday life.

Klasnja and colleagues (2015) described an experimental design for building these interventions, the microrandomized trial. Spruijt-Metz and Nilsen (2014) wrote on dynamic models of behavior for the same kind of intervention.

How a session runs

  1. Begin by naming the situations in your week where a steadier voice or a small push would help most.
  2. Agree on two or three moments you want support for, such as the start of a hard workday or the minutes after a difficult conversation. Say, in your own words, what would help at each.
  3. Between sessions, support reaches you only at those agreed moments and only on the channels you have said you want.
  4. When a prompt arrives, you decide whether to act on it now or set it aside, and you note what happened.
  5. At the next session, look at which moments produced movement and which did not, and change the timing or the wording rather than the goal.
  6. Stop any moment that no longer helps, and keep the total number small enough to sustain.

When it tends to fit

  • The hard part of your day is not the same every day, and a plan made once keeps missing the version of it that actually happens.
  • You have a clear goal and the gap is at one specific point, such as the minute before you open a message you have been putting off.
  • A single weekly check-in is too far from the decisions it was meant to affect, and you want support closer to when those decisions happen.

What the research shows

Evidence: Some peer-reviewed studies

The sources checked are mostly framework, design and review papers, with one report of an intervention run within a trial. The evidence rating rests on the just-in-time adaptive intervention research base, not on studies of coaching. Nahum-Shani and colleagues (2017) set out the components of these interventions, including the timing of support and the factors that tailor it. Klasnja and colleagues (2015) describe the microrandomized trial, a design for testing timing decisions over time. Fiedler and colleagues (2023) report a just-in-time adaptive intervention to enhance physical activity, run within the SMARTFAMILY2.0 trial. Heron and Smyth (2010) review ecological momentary interventions, and Spruijt-Metz and Nilsen (2014) write on dynamic models for these interventions. None of the sources checked tests coaching delivered this way as a whole.

Untested combination. Each part above has its own research; this way of combining them has not been tested as a whole.

Where the evidence is thin: These sources are framework papers, a design paper, reviews and models, and one report of an intervention run within a trial, whose outcomes this page does not report. They show that this kind of timing can be built and studied. They do not show that timing a prompt improves outcomes more than offering the same support on a schedule, and they do not test coaching delivered this way. Nahum-Shani and colleagues (2017) note that many such interventions were developed with minimal use of empirical evidence, theory, or accepted treatment guidelines.

Sources

  1. Nahum-Shani, I., Smith, S. N., Spring, B. J., Collins, L. M., Witkiewitz, K., Tewari, A., & Murphy, S. A. (2017). Just-in-Time Adaptive Interventions (JITAIs) in Mobile Health: Key Components and Design Principles for Ongoing Health Behavior Support. Annals of Behavioral Medicine.
  2. Klasnja, P., Hekler, E. B., Shiffman, S., Boruvka, A., Almirall, D., Tewari, A., & Murphy, S. A. (2015). Microrandomized trials: An experimental design for developing just-in-time adaptive interventions. Health Psychology.
  3. Fiedler, J., Seiferth, C., Eckert, T., Woll, A., & Wunsch, K. (2023). A just-in-time adaptive intervention to enhance physical activity in the SMARTFAMILY2.0 trial. Sport, Exercise, and Performance Psychology.
  4. Heron, K. E., & Smyth, J. M. (2010). Ecological momentary interventions: Incorporating mobile technology into psychosocial and health behaviour treatments. British Journal of Health Psychology.
  5. Spruijt-Metz, D., & Nilsen, W. (2014). Dynamic Models of Behavior for Just-in-Time Adaptive Interventions. IEEE Pervasive Computing.

Where it stops

A prompt that arrives at the wrong moment can feel intrusive, as if you are being watched or managed. Any version should make it easy to say not now and to switch a moment off.

This approach is not built for acute distress, crisis, or thoughts of harming yourself. Those need immediate human help. If you are in that situation, contact local emergency services or a crisis line now.

A pattern that keeps returning, such as persistent low mood or a relationship in danger, needs a qualified professional. Timing a prompt does not replace that care.

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