self-assessment · solo or pair · offline + online
The Energy Audit.folder
You can't redirect a week you can't see. Mark each recurring thing + / − / =, name the drain you chose and the plus you starved, then swap one. Honest, not impressive.
// sign + prompt cards · 15 min · print & run · tool pack · no projector, no account
A self-assessment of where your energy actually goes, built as a complete workshop folder: a timed run sheet, printable sign and prompt cards, and a list → mark → spot → swap mechanic that surfaces the drain you keep choosing for no good reason and the source you've been starving — without turning into a goal-setting checklist.
The props are poker-spec print cards (63.5 × 88.9 mm, bleed and cut guides included) — three sign cards (+ · − · =), a chosen-drain card, a starved-plus card, a swap-and-date card and branded backs. Nothing needs a projector, and nothing needs an account to download.
the run sheet
// this is the guide file, word for word — read it here, run from it here. the .md at the bottom of the page is the same text, offline.
Folder: `the-energy-audit` · Category: self-assessment · 1–2 people · 15 min · offline + online · print props · tool pack License: CC BY 4.0
You cannot redirect a week you cannot see. List the recurring things you actually do, mark each one by what it does to your energy — gives (+), drains (−), neutral (=) — then find the biggest drain you keep choosing and the biggest + you keep skipping, and commit to one dated swap. An energy audit is not time management; it is noticing what your time costs and returns.
How this differs from `the-not-anymore-list`: The Not-Anymore List stops items by asking a team "if we weren't already doing this, would we start it today?" — it audits *the work*. This audits *what the work does to you*: the unit is your energy, not the calendar, and a "+" item is protected, never cut. Run the list when the team's workload is the question; run this when your own fuel is the question.
Objectives
By the end of the activity, participants will have:
- Mapped a real week — every recurring thing they actually do, marked + / − / = without deliberation.
- Named the biggest drain they keep choosing anyway and the biggest plus they keep cutting when it gets busy.
- Committed to one dated swap — one − dropped, halved or batched, one + added back — said out loud.
When to use this activity
- Someone is busy all week and cannot say what any of it cost them — the blur is the problem, not the schedule.
- Before designing a role change, a redistribution of work, or a "we'll do less" promise — audit the current week first.
- As a standing 15-minute weekly pulse: mark and spot only, and watch whether a single − ever moves.
Setup
Clock: fifteen minutes for the full run. Solo, it is the same fifteen; in pairs, each person runs their own audit, then the read-aloud takes five more.
Space: a desk. This tool deliberately fits next to a laptop — the list comes from the calendar and the inbox, the marks come from the body.
Materials per person:
| Item | Source |
|---|---|
| 3 × sign cards — gives (+), drains (−), neutral (=) | `the-energy-audit-prop-cards.pdf` |
| 3 × prompt cards — "the drain I keep choosing", "the + I keep skipping", "one swap + date" | `the-energy-audit-prop-cards.pdf` |
| 1 × list surface — sticky notes, or the blank backs of the sign cards | `the-energy-audit-prop-cards.pdf` print page |
| 1 × pen | the first mark is the honest one; no erasing ritual |
Grouping: 1 person. It works solo on a desk, or as a pair who each run their own audit and then read the pattern aloud to the other.
Roles: solo, you are both auditor and auditee; in pairs, the listener's only job is the one question — "what are you trading it for?"
How to run it
| Time | Phase | Facilitator does | Participants do |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0–5 | List | "Every recurring thing in a normal week — meetings, tasks, rituals, the autopilot ones. Activities, not outcomes." | Write each recurring thing on its own note |
| 5–9 | Mark | "Don't deliberate. A 'should be + but is −' counts as −." | Put +, − or = beside each item |
| 9–12 | Spot | Lay out the two prompt cards. "The biggest − you keep choosing anyway. The biggest + you cut first when it gets busy." | Circle exactly two items — those are the finding |
| 12–15 | Swap | Demand the date and the out-loud version. "Drop, halve, or batch the −; add back the + — smallest survivable size." | Commit one swap in front of the partner (or out loud to yourself) |
Then run the debrief — see `the-energy-audit-debrief.md`.
The card
Three sign cards keep the alphabet of the audit in view — + gives, − drains, = neutral — and three prompt cards step the hard part: naming the chosen drain, admitting the starved plus, and writing the swap with a date on it. The swap card is the reason the deck exists at all: an audit that ends in insight instead of one dated experiment is people-watching with extra steps.
Failure modes
- The list is outcomes and obligations, not activities. "Reporting" drains nobody; "the Tuesday status call" does. Rescue: go concrete — one event per note.
- The marks get deliberated. Three minutes on one item means the honest answer is being negotiated. Rescue: first mark stands; no re-marking.
- Everything is a −. That is a mood, not a map. Rescue: "what did you do twice last week that cost almost nothing and didn't grind you down?" Start from there.
- The swap is a wish list. Ten changes is none. Rescue: one −, one +, one date — that is the whole commitment.
Variations
- Weekly pulse: run just the mark + spot phase on one recurring day each week; watch a single − finally move.
- Before a role change: audit the current week first — you cannot design the next one until you have seen what this one costs.
- Pair cross-read: each person reads their biggest − and + aloud; the partner asks "what are you trading it for?" — the question you won't ask yourself.
- Online: the list lives in a shared doc, the marks are emoji; the read-aloud stays live on a call. The pattern still has to be said out loud, not just seen.
Facilitation notes
- Honest, not impressive. Mark what you actually do and actually feel, not the version you would show a manager.
- A drain you keep choosing is a decision. Name what you are trading it for — that is where the leverage is.
- One swap. A list of ten changes is a wish; one dated change is an experiment.
Put it on the wall
Print `the-energy-audit-activity-poster.pdf` (A3) to keep the two rules — mark what is true, swap one with a date — in view while the week gets mapped.
Props in this folder
- `the-energy-audit-prop-cards.pdf` — poker-spec print sheet (63.5 × 88.9 mm, bleed and cut guides): three sign cards (+ · − · =), the chosen-drain card, the starved-plus card, the swap-and-date card, blank faces, branded backs
- `the-energy-audit-guide.md` — this run sheet
- `the-energy-audit-debrief.md` — the debrief questions and the failure modes of the debrief
- `the-energy-audit-run-sheet.pdf` — the print edition: this run sheet + the debrief, bound as one A4 document with bookmarks
- `the-energy-audit-activity-poster.pdf` — the whole tool on one A3 wall sheet: the run, the two rules, the watch-outs
- `the-energy-audit-start-here.md` — one page, thirty seconds, then print and go
- `the-energy-audit-license.md` — what you may do with all of this
- `SKILL.md` — machine-readable manifest for AI agents
- `*-Letter.pdf` — US Letter editions of the print documents
Agent version
Every file in this folder has a stable public URL — an AI agent can fetch the cards, the debrief and this run sheet with three curl commands (see `SKILL.md`). The paper version needs nothing but a desk, some sticky notes and six cards.
the debrief sheet
// the debrief questions, in full — the .md version prints on one page for the room.
Nobody is drained in the abstract — the debrief is where a page of + / − / = turns into one dated swap worth testing. Use with `the-energy-audit-guide.md`. The swap phase at minute 12 is the compressed version; this sheet is the full one.
How to run this debrief
- Keep the marked-up week on the table — the two circled items visible. The finding is a pattern, and patterns need to stay in view.
- Let them sit with the − column in silence first. Out loud, the first defence of every drain is always "it's required."
- Close on the swap card: one −, one +, one date. If the swap cannot be stated small enough to survive a busy week, it is not a swap — it is a wish.
Read the marks
- Look at the − column without talking. Which drains are genuinely required, and which are just habitual?
- Is your biggest − something you'd defend if a stranger asked why you do it? If not, why is it still on the list?
- Which + did you mark late, as if you had to give yourself permission? That's the one you've been starving.
- Does the pattern match how you *describe* your week to others, or does it disagree? The disagreement is the finding.
The eight debrief questions
1. The trade.
"What are you trading to keep this drain? Say it in one sentence — 'I keep it because…'."
→ Targets: turning a drift into a decision. If the trade can be named, it can be renegotiated.
2. Decision or momentum.
"If you can't name the trade — is this a decision, or momentum you never re-made?"
→ Targets: the difference between a choice and a default; most unexamined − items fail this question.
3. Halve instead of drop.
"Could it be halved or batched instead of dropped, so the trade is still honored but smaller?"
→ Targets: the survivable version of the swap. Full deletion dies in week two; a halved drain keeps the promise it was protecting.
4. Who would notice.
"Who would notice if it went — and would that be load-bearing, or just the first thing anyone saw?"
→ Targets: separating real dependencies from visibility anxiety.
5. The smallest plus.
"What is the smallest version of the + you're adding back — so small it survives a busy week?"
→ Targets: restoration sized to reality. The starved plus starved because it was scheduled at full size.
6. The two-week read.
"How will you know in two weeks whether the swap helped, tired you out, or changed nothing?"
→ Targets: an honest pre-registered outcome — including "nothing," which is data, not failure.
7. The pull-back.
"What will you say to yourself when old momentum pulls the − back onto the list?"
→ Targets: rehearsing the relapse, because it will come; the swap card's date is the anchor.
8. The concrete swap.
"What exactly will you do differently, on which day, starting when?"
→ Targets: the commitment in calendar form. "Less meetings" is a mood; "Thursday's standing call, dropped, from next week" is a swap.
Failure modes of the debrief
| Failure mode | Why it happens | The rescue |
|---|---|---|
| Everything is a drain | You're listing outcomes and obligations, not activities | Go concrete — "the Tuesday status call," not "reporting." Nobody drains you in the abstract. |
| Not a single + on the page | The small ones got skipped | "What did you do twice last week that cost almost nothing and didn't grind you down?" Start there. |
| The swap is too big to survive | Three − deleted, a two-hour + added | Halve both sides — one small subtraction, one tiny restoration. A swap you keep beats a plan you abandon. |
Who is The Energy Audit for?
Anyone who insists they have no time for what they enjoy but can't say where the week went — and anyone heading into a role change or a burnout conversation who needs evidence, not a vibe. It takes 15 minutes, solo or in a pair.
What does it produce?
A marked-up map of a normal week, your one chosen drain and one starved source named, and a single dated swap to test. No pre/post measure; the artifact is the swap and the honesty it took to name it.
Can my AI agent use this folder?
Yes. Every folder ships a SKILL.md skill file: frontmatter for matching plus runnable prep commands — fetch the cards, pull the debrief. The three-step workflow (discover, install, run) lives on the skills page, every folder ships a one-command zip bundle, and the machine index is skills.json.
Is it really free?
Yes — CC BY 4.0, no account, no email wall inside a folder. Download it, run it, copy it, rebrand it for your own workshop. Attribution keeps everything free.
make it live
The paper version is built for a sticky-note week and a pen. If you want the online version — the same list, + / − / = marks and the dated swap as a live weekly check, with re-runs comparable and the data in your own workspace — two ways:
for AI agents
$ formlm-cli smart generate --input "Weekly energy self-check for The Energy Audit: list the recurring activities in a normal week, mark each one gives (+), drains (-) or neutral (=), name the biggest drain you keep choosing and the biggest plus you keep skipping, and commit one dated swap - drop, halve or batch one drain and add back one plus. 15 minutes, solo or pair, weekly re-run."
Step 4 of the agent workflow: npm install -g @formlm/cli, log in once, and the prep above runs itself. The form and its data live in your own workspace.
— or, with a mouse —
Open the free self-assessment template on FormLM
and paste the phase prompts from the-energy-audit-guide.md — the form keeps answers structured and re-runs comparable.
// optional, not required — the paper version in this folder is complete on its own. free account on their side.
make it yours
This audit runs offline with no account — a list of your week and a pen. The card prompts are the one file to change: rename gives / drains / the chosen drain / the starved plus to how you already talk about energy, and reprint at poker spec; the 'honest, not impressive' rule stays. The white-label guide walks through it.
Files in this folder
All files are free under CC BY 4.0. Attribution: “The Energy Audit · WorkshopSkill · CC BY 4.0.”