Time-Energy-Money Resource Audit
Plan change around the three resources that make action possible
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~days to results
- Steps
- 6
- Confidence
- 98%
The Time-Energy-Money Resource Audit reduces practical capacity to three resources: available time, usable energy, and money. A plan begins by identifying which resource is abundant and which is scarce. The delivery model then adapts to the limiting profile. Bustamante gives a training example: a client with money but little time receives concentrated training, while someone with more time than money can use a lower-cost digital format. The mechanism prevents false substitution. Money cannot create progress when a person lacks both time and energy; free time cannot fund an expensive intervention. The audit turns a generic plan into one that fits the person's real capacity and exposes where scope, pace, or format must change.
Origin
Bustamante describes this as a CIA teaching and says his consulting work often begins by auditing which of the three resources a client has most and least.
Core principles
- 01Time, energy, and money constrain action
- 02Abundance in one resource does not erase scarcity in another
- 03Plans should fit the scarcest resource
- 04Delivery intensity should match the resource profile
How to run it
- 1
Name the change
Define the outcome so the resource estimate has a concrete target.
- 2
Audit time
Count the actual hours and scheduling windows available, not aspirational free time.
Pro tip Use the next few weeks of calendar evidence.
- 3
Audit energy
Estimate the physical, emotional, and cognitive capacity available during those windows.
Pro tip Distinguish open hours from focused hours.
Watch out Time without usable energy is not equivalent capacity.
- 4
Audit money
Set the affordable direct cost and loss boundary.
Watch out Do not assume future returns will fund current commitments.
- 5
Design for the bottleneck
Change the pace, format, or scope to fit the scarcest resource.
Pro tip Spend an abundant resource to protect the scarce one when appropriate.
- 6
Re-audit during execution
Update the plan when the resource profile materially changes.
In the wild
A manager has a generous budget but only two free mornings before a launch. The audit identifies time as the bottleneck, so the manager purchases a concentrated live workshop rather than enrolling in a twelve-week self-paced course. A second learner with little money and flexible evenings chooses the digital course instead.
→ Each person uses a format matched to the resource they actually possess.
Common mistakes
Counting empty calendar space as energy
An available hour cannot support demanding work if the person lacks the capacity to use it.
Designing for the abundant resource
The plan usually breaks at the scarcest resource, so that constraint should shape the design.
Is it for you?
Best for
It is best for choosing a realistic project, learning, or implementation format before committing.
Not ideal for
It is not ideal when legal authority, specialist capability, or another hard dependency is the true constraint.
From the transcript
“The CIA teaches us there's only three resources that matter. time, energy, and money.”
“Which of these resources do you have in abundance, which of these resources do you have the least amount of?”
From the episode
Episode 519: Andrew Bustamante: Reading People, Predicting Behavior and Creating Leverage
Andrew Bustamante