Hey there!

Holy crap we are at number 30! We are past the first half of the year and we still have not failed a single weekly Newsletter.

Juan is going to be in Italy with his family this week. With rising tensions in the political climate, Juan will talk about what would actually happen during a nuclear war.

Michael got his exam grades back and now has passed all his courses. He only has a thesis standing in the way of ending his 11-year long university career. On theme with this, he’s going to be writing about making more time.

LIFE

What would happen in a Nuclear war

5 billion people would die. That’s what Annie Jacobsen said in her book Nuclear War: A Scenario.

She interviewed countless nuclear experts like the secretary of defense, nuclear engineers, ex-heads of classified organisations in the United States, and many more.

In only 72 minutes of nuclear war, hundreds of millions will die. Then comes nuclear winter, where billions of people will die from starvation.

Nuclear war feels like it is very close to happening, and it only takes one crazy leader with a nuclear arsenal to start this nuclear fallout.

☢️ How Nuclear war starts:

The USA has satellites monitoring its enemies all around the world. When an ICBM (Intercontinental ballistic missile) launches, these satellites will detect them in a fraction of a second and will trigger the horrifying policy “Launch on warning”. What this means is that the United States will not wait to absorb an attack; it will launch a nuclear weapon in response before they are hit.

The United States has 1,770 nuclear weapons on standby, Russia has 1,674, and among the 9 armed nuclear world nations, they have 12,000. With these crazy numbers, nobody would launch. But what if someone did?

There are two types of nuclear weapons: Strategic and tactical.

• Strategic weapons are designed to win the war. They are far deadlier and faster.

  • ICBMs can travel across the world in 30 minutes. They are launched from nuclear silos. They cannot be recalled or redirected. Once launched, you can’t stop them.

  • Bombers: B-52s and B-2s. They take more time to travel and can be recalled.

• Tactical weapons designed to win the battle. They are less devastating than strategic weapons. Russia has been threatening to use Tactical nuclear bombs in its war with Ukraine.

ICBMs can be broken down into 3 stages:

1. Boost phase (5 minutes). The rocket can be tracked as it launches into space.

2. Midcourse phase (20 minutes): The rocket is in space 500-700 miles above the planet and it can no longer be tracked.

3. Terminal phase (100 seconds): Warhead re-enters the atmosphere and detonates.

Can’t the USA intercept incoming missiles and stop them? They have a total of 44 interceptor missiles, which is nothing, and they also have a success rate of 50%. So stopping them is pointless.

Here is a nukemap of Amsterdam if it was hit by one of China’s current ICBMs. Feel free to check your city on the link.

So what happens after the nuclear blasts? If you are still alive and your city is not destroyed or burning, then all services will stop. No electricity, no water, no food, no fuel. That’s only the first few hours.

💀 Nuclear winter:

After all the explosions, everything will burn and create immense amounts of soot, which will block the sun. Temperatures will plummet and agriculture will fail. There will also be nuclear radiation floating in the air and spreading across the entire planet by the weather.

Even if you survive this, after the nuclear freeze ends after 10 years and the sun starts to come back, now you have no ozone layer. So the sunlight is poisonous and you would need to live underground.

So you most probably die. But can you prepare for this? Juan will investigate and write about this in a future article 😉.

“I do not know with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.”
- Albert Einstein

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— Juan

TIME

How to Make More Time

As I've mentioned before, I have a knack for juggling too many things at once and spreading myself too thin. The result? Not getting much meaningful stuff done.

In an effort to combat my own tendencies, I got some tips from a recent All The Hacks episode that focuses on making more time in your day. The guests in this episode are the authors of Make Time: How to Focus on What Matters Every Day and Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days which are now on my reading list. I’ll probably share things from these books in a future newsletter.

4 Key Strategies to Focus Your Time

1. Highlight: Identify a single, high-priority task to focus on each day. This is something that will give you a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction.

2. Laser: Create focus by eliminating distractions and dedicating uninterrupted time to your highlight. Techniques include setting boundaries, managing notifications, and creating a distraction-free environment.

3. Energize: Maintain your energy throughout the day by taking care of your physical and mental well-being. This involves getting enough sleep, eating nutritious food, exercising, and taking breaks.

4. Reflect: At the end of each day, reflect on what worked and what didn’t. Use this reflection to make adjustments and continuously improve your time management approach.

Do this on a day-by-day basis. Decide on your highlight task for the day either the night before or the morning of. Time block your highlight in your calendar and organize the rest of your day around this block.

Some additional tips from the episode

1. Figure out what matters most to you.

2. Do fewer different things each day.

3. Choose one thing you need to get done each day→ The rest can be a mess.

4. Beware of 'Infinite Content' apps.

5. Embrace boredom by aiming for a distraction-free phone.

6. When you're bored, time feels slower.

7. Reset expectations for how quickly you respond to things.

8. Remove unnecessary notifications!

9. Batch similar tasks together in order to complete them more efficiently.

After listening to this episode, I realized I need to spend less time "plugged-in." Instead of always having my AirPods in and listening to podcasts, I'll plan to take more "silent" walks.

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— Michael

TAKING ACTION

Sign up to our Accountability Clubs

Want a community to keep you accountable? Willing to put your money where your mouth is? 😂

How it works:
💸 Everyone makes the same deposit at the beginning of the month.
✅ Every day you succeed, you get paid back a small amount from your deposit PLUS the money from others who failed that day.
❌ Every day you fail, your money for that day goes to people who succeed.
🗓️ It is 5 times a week. Month-to-month contract. You can join or leave at the beginning of each month.

Clubs you can join:
🏋️ Exercise 5 times a week.
⏰ Wake up early during weekdays.
📵 Digital minimalism during weekdays.
🚶‍♂️ Average Weekly Steps.
⏱️ Side Project Time Tracking.
🏫 Main Project Time Tracking.
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Highlights from Exercise Club: