This is a book I would recommend d to literally antibody of any age or stage in life. There is so much practical and workable advice in here you can apply to improve your life and take back control of it.

People are being controlled by so many things they don’t realise - social media algorithms designed to make us angry, negative and often believing things that are not even truth. Each platform is designed to pull you the way it wants you to - this book tells you HOW with each platform you can change what you put into your day, your mind, your heart and your belief system. It’s important. Interestingly but not surprising X (formally Twitter) is the one designed to i flame hate and discontent the most, to control the vacuum you start to live in. Most people don’t know that accounts they follow and retweet daily are either bots or hired foreign agitators sitting in Russia, China or Iran laughing at the average person in the USA, UK or Europe buying into planted arguments.

But it’s much more than that. It’s about taking back your time - like that first half hour in the morning to do something positive. Don’t read the news first thing, don’t start doomscrolling, don’t open your work emails. Control how you start your day.

There is a great chapter about working with understanding AI not getting overwhelmed by it or worse - controlled by it. Make it challenge you. You make it work for you for everything. Don’t be lazy. Don’t let it think for you. I got SO much out of this chapter it’s crazy!

This book covers SO much to make your life better and take back control. So many of us are being knowingly or unknowingly controlled by outside forces. Make it stop. Do you really need to be on social media spewing hateful rhetoric or arguing with obvious trolls or bots? No. You don’t.

This isn’t done new age self-help book. It covers topics from sleep, health, friendships, dreams to first jobs, dream jobs, strengths development and so much more. It’s practical in telling you how to quickly and easily change what’s not working. Did you know for example TikToks algorithm isn’t based on what you “like” which is like other platforms but how long you engage with a clip for. It teaches you which settings to turn on/off, what to say no to and how to clean up on every social media platform.

We are actually living in times that have a lot of positives and some things shown in this book really surprised me. It’s because mainstream news and the algorithm pushes out the negative, the extreme, the lies and the stuff that creates anger, anxiety, worry and worse.

Such simple recommendations in here of things to replace this time wasting stuff with and HOW to use today’s Ai, technology, systems and all that’s available to us to make us and the world a better place. It starts with us right?

It uses real stories of real people and simple things they did that propelled their lives, or created a huge success story or inspired the world. So you know it’s all achievable. I actually our zone things in this book into action immediately.

It’s full of a lot of easy to read and easy to understand information and things to make you think. I like it doesn’t just leave you there. I learnt a LOT. I learnt if you don’t sleep enough then the brain can’t rest to kill the proteins that cause dementia. Holy cow! I have severe insomnia and I’ve lost loved ones to dementia. It makes you take a “heard this all before” piece of information and really recognise how significant it is. I read this cover to cover in one sitting and highly recommend it to literally everyone.

Take back control of your life, your time, your happiness and learn to say no and fight the systems, people and things that come to steal, kill and destroy. 5 stars!

You Control YOU feels like a much-needed push against the idea that we are powerless in the face of algorithms, AI, anxiety, and a constant stream of bad news. Jim VandeHei keeps coming back to a simple idea. You may not control the world around you, but you have far more say over your attention, habits, choices, and time than it sometimes feels like you do.

I am outside the book’s primary under-35 audience, but a lot of this still resonated with me. I spend much of my working life online, and it is incredibly easy to mistake consuming information for actually doing something useful. I liked the bluntness here and the emphasis on taking responsibility without pretending everything is within our control.

My sincere thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a free advance review copy.