The 3-Step System for Simplifying Your Work and Life

Brett McKay (0:00)

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Brett McKay here and welcome to another edition of the A1 Podcast. Now, before we get to today's show, I want to let you guys know that we just launched a redesign of the Art of Manliness website. We think it looks really great and we're very excited about it. Visit artofmanliness.com to check it out and be sure to view it on desktop or laptop to get the full experience. Now, to celebrate this redesign, we're giving away AoM stickers completely free to subscribers of the AoM newsletter. If you're not a newsletter subscriber yet, visit artofmanliness.com/newsletter and sign up. Not only will you get free stickers, but the newsletter is a great way to keep up with the content we put out on AoM and improve your life each week. Hope you enjoy the new website and thanks so much for the support. Now, on to the show.

When people are faced with problems and complexity, our instinct is to add instead of subtract. As a result, we have a tendency to make our work and our lives more and more complex, and less and less effective and fulfilling.

Even when what we add is new technology that promises to make us more productive, it often only seems to bog us down and give us even more to do. My guest says that to fight this drift toward complexity, especially in the modern age, you got to be ruthless about cutting out the superfluous and focusing on what's most important. His name is Jim VandeHei, he's the co-founder and CEO of Axios and the co-author of Simplify. Today in the show, Jim explains how to simplify your work and personal life using a three-step process, confront, delete, and amplify. We discussed how to identify the slop we're all inundated with, and he's not just talking about what's generated by AI, rules of thumb for what to say no to, why you should spend more time developing your strength than fixing your weaknesses, and the importance of getting clear on what you want out of life, both personally and professionally. After the show's over, check out our show notes at aom.is slash simplify.