On Sale September 15, 2026
Simplify
Do 50% More With 50% Less
Jim VandeHei, Mike Allen & Roy Schwartz
Bestselling authors of Smart Brevity | Co-creators of Axios
Pre-order at
Bulk orders and speaking opportunities
Simplify
Do 50% More With 50% Less
Jim VandeHei, Mike Allen & Roy Schwartz
Bestselling authors of Smart Brevity | Co-creators of Axios
Pre-order at
Learn more about bulk orders and speaking opportunities
The survival guide for the AI era
With AI upending work and life, the bestselling authors of Smart Brevity offer a one-stop survival guide to dramatically improving your life, work, and happiness.
Toxic complexity clogs our meetings, inboxes, and calendars. We can do so much more, but first we need to do less. Simplify shows you how: a step-by-step playbook for spending most of your time doing things that make you feel and perform better.
Simplify will help anyone thrive, from interns to CEOs. The authors draw on lessons from founding two hot startups and years of advising Fortune 500 companies.
Three steps. Infinite clarity.
Toxic complexity clogs our meetings, inboxes, and calendars. The Confront, Delete, Amplify framework is the operating system for cutting through it.
Confront
Face the complexity head-on. Identify what is truly essential versus what is noise cluttering your work and life.
Delete
Ruthlessly eliminate the meetings, tasks, habits, and obligations that drain energy without delivering value.
Amplify
Pour your freed-up time and focus into the things that make you feel and perform at your absolute best.
Everything you need to simplify
A step-by-step playbook for spending your time on what makes you perform and feel your best.
Learn the Confront, Delete, Amplify framework used by the world's most effective leaders to cut complexity and reclaim focus. Each chapter delivers a concrete action you can apply immediately.
A powerful executive exercise for defining your team's core mission, identifying your best people, and aligning every initiative to what actually matters. Works as a personal tool or an organizational reset.
With AI upending every industry, Simplify shows you how to use it as a force multiplier rather than a threat. Learn how to stay irreplaceable by doubling down on your highest-value work.
Packed with real-world advice from the world's most successful executives, founders, and operators, distilled into the actionable insights that actually moved the needle for them.
Discover how high-potential employees and executives use deliberate simplification to accelerate their careers and lead with greater clarity, confidence, and impact.
More output
Less effort
Organizations trained
When you simplify the work and give people real ownership, you unleash the momentum that powers any great turnaround.”
Brian Niccol
Chairman & CEO, Starbucks
I've learned that when the small, everyday decisions are simple, the bigger ones feel clearer, calmer, and easier to move toward. Simplifying the mundane is about creating space.”
Marina Vaxman
Small Business Owner
Simplifying our internal communications wasn't just a style choice. It was a strategic decision. When we cut the noise, our teams moved faster and our results showed it.”
John Stankey
CEO, AT&T
Coach-led training programs to simplify your communications
Simplify Fundamentals
Introduce the basics of a Simplify mindset to your organization. 60 min · up to 100 attendees.
Simplify Workshop
Identify and overcome areas of misalignment on your team. 2.5 hrs · up to 15 attendees.
Simplify for Management
Equip managers to get the best performance from their teams in the simplest way. Two-day bootcamp · up to 15 attendees.
Simplify works for every level of your organization
Simplify your operations
Use Simplify as an organizational operating system. Align every team around what is essential and eliminate the complexity that slows you down.
Simplify your leadership
Use the Purpose, People, Work framework to define your team's mission, identify your best people, and cut every initiative that doesn't move the needle.
Simplify your message
From the authors of Smart Brevity, learn how to cut complexity from every email, update, and presentation you send.
Simplify how your team works
Identify the meetings, processes, and approvals that drain your team's energy. Reclaim that time for the high-impact work that actually drives results.
Simplify your career
The Amplify mindset section shows rising stars how to ruthlessly focus on their highest-value work and accelerate their trajectory.
Simplify your life
From interns to CEOs, Simplify helps anyone thrive by spending most of their time doing things that make them feel and perform better.
Buy for your whole team
Volume pricing available for orders of 25 or more copies. Ideal for team reads, onboarding programs, and leadership development.
Includes a virtual briefing call with one author. Jim, Mike, or Roy will apply the Simplify framework directly to your organization's challenges.
All three authors, Jim, Mike, and Roy, join a virtual session with your team for a deep-dive Simplify workshop tailored to your organization.
1 or more authors come to you for an in-person session with your leadership team. Travel costs are the responsibility of the purchasing organization.
To inquire about speaking opportunities or bulk orders, email simplify@axios.com.
Request a Bulk OrderThe people who invented Smart Brevity
Jim VandeHei
Co-founder and CEO, Axios
Jim VandeHei is co-founder and CEO of Axios and the New York Times bestselling author of Just the Good Stuff and Smart Brevity: The Power of Saying More with Less. He previously co-founded Politico and spent more than a decade as a reporter for The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post.
Roy Schwartz
Co-founder, Axios and Axios HQ
Roy Schwartz is co-founder of Axios and Axios HQ, co-author of the bestselling Smart Brevity, and executive producer of the Emmy Award-winning Axios on HBO. He previously served as chief revenue officer at Politico.
Mike Allen
Co-founder and Executive Editor, Axios
Mike Allen is co-founder of Axios and the face of Axios AM, PM, and Finish Line newsletters. He co-founded Politico and is an alumnus of TIME, The New York Times, and The Washington Post.
Also by these authors
Smart Brevity
The Power of Saying More with Less
Ready to Simplify?
Pre-order your copy today. Available September 15, 2026 in hardcover, ebook, and audio.
Publication details
- Publisher
- Crown Currency, Penguin Random House
- Publication date
- September 15, 2026
- Length
- 224 pages
- Hardcover
- ISBN 9798217088775
- Audiobook
- ISBN 9798217406876
- Ebook
- Available at launch
- List price
- $31.00 USD, hardcover