{"id":195094,"date":"2026-09-15T09:14:57","date_gmt":"2026-09-15T14:14:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/?p=195094"},"modified":"2026-09-15T21:03:48","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T02:03:48","slug":"podcast-1133-the-3-step-system-for-simplifying-your-work-and-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/finance\/career\/podcast-1133-the-3-step-system-for-simplifying-your-work-and-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Podcast #1,133: The 3-Step System for Simplifying Your Work and Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

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.<\/p>\n

My guest says that to fight this drift toward complexity, especially in the modern age, you\u2019ve got to be ruthless about cutting out the superfluous and focusing on what\u2019s most important. His name is Jim VandeHei, and he\u2019s the co-founder and CEO of Axios and the co-author of Simplify<\/em>.<\/a><\/p>\n

Today on the show, Jim explains how to simplify your work and personal life using a three-step process: confront, delete, and amplify. We discuss how to identify the \u201cslop\u201d we\u2019re all inundated with (and he\u2019s not just talking about what\u2019s generated by AI), rules of thumb for what to say no to, why you should spend more time developing your strengths than fixing your weaknesses, and the importance of getting clear on what you want out of life, both personally and professionally.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":195095,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[424,42377,156],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-195094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-career","category-finance","category-podcast"],"featured_image_urls":{"large":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1133-538x280.png","medium_large":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1133-768x432.png","aom":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1133-372x230.png","reactor-320":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1133-320x180.png","reactor-640":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1133-640x360.png"},"yoast_head":"\nPodcast #1,133: The 3-Step System for Simplifying Your Work and Life | The Art of Manliness<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/finance\/career\/podcast-1133-the-3-step-system-for-simplifying-your-work-and-life\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Podcast #1,133: The 3-Step System for Simplifying Your Work and Life | The Art of Manliness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When people are faced with problems and complexity, our instinct is to add instead of subtract. 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