Tem Nugmanov
CEO / Digital Operations Consultant
Welcome to the thirteenth edition of Async Chats! This letter is all about candid conversations with people like yourself. If you’d like some more context see this letter. Otherwise, let’s get into this.
Tem is a CEO and digital operations consultant. He is a remote worker, located in New York.
What is a digital operations consultant?
Well, I run an agency that does that. And yeah, I don’t really know what that means either because it’s an emerging field. Put simply, my team and I help distributed/remote startups adopt modern productivity and organization tools to improve internal operations and employee experience. Currently, that takes shape in building effective Notion workspaces and conducting training around that.
Why remote work?
Mostly by inertia. I started the agency in March 2020. Which, to say the least, was good timing to launch something that helps other remote workers and distributed teams.
The company grew through my engagement with Twitter, and other internet communities. I found clients and employees there. I met my first hire, Valentine, in the Makerlog Telegram chat. Now, he leads the agency’s service delivery department. And we’ve never met in person.
This unfolded the same way for the rest of the team. Frankly, I wouldn’t know where to look for collaborators and clients in such a new field but the internet brought them to me. And being remote and distributed made it possible.
I don’t have children and live with my girlfriend in Manhattan.
I don’t care much for the freedom and flexibility of remote work. I work from 8am to 6pm usually in a co-working space nearby. I used to stay home and do chores at breaks but that’s not a big deal for me.
What are your interests outside of work?
I’m lucky because I really enjoy doing what I do for work but in the context of my personal life — a big interest of mine is nerding out on systems. So outside of work, I find myself building Notion workspaces to run my fitness, nutrition, and relationships.
One day, though, I want to transition from tech to film. I love film. My grandfather was a pretty kick ass documentary director in Kazakhstan, so I bet it’s in the blood. Currently, I’m more of a consumer of films and various YouTube analysis and review videos. My favorites include A Quiet Place, Dark Knight, Joker, Knives Out, Interstellar, Us, Ratatouille, Parasite and Whiplash (yeah my tastes are more mainstream). Similarly, my favorite TV show is Game of Thrones.
I also love playing board games. My favorite group-based game is Settlers of Catan. Pre-pandemic, I used to play every weekend, so now I’d like to get back to it. I also really like Texas Hold’em Poker. Recently, though, I’ve been playing a lot of Chess with my girlfriend.
Lastly, I’ve been into sports and weightlifting for a good part of my adult life. Currently, I train for fitness but one day I want to become really good at olympic weightlifting and perhaps enter an amateur competition.
What are some of your favorite digital or physical tools?
Digital: Centered, Notion, Raycast, Readwise, Superhuman, Vimcal.
Physical: Airpods, CitiBike, Squatty Potty, Whoop.
I hate Google Workspace but I cannot not mention it because it serves as a foundation.
Do you prefer to work/ communicate asynchronously or synchronously? Why?
A mix but lean more into async. I prefer to take the time to process information and act on it as it makes sense to me. I dislike being rushed or forced; especially, when it comes to decision-making. However, conversations energize me and I like to stare into people’s eyes and also give hugs.
Questions of the week:
How do you define productivity?
The production of positive high quality outputs in any domain of life.
For example, having a great conversation with your partner is very productive for my relationship domain. In fact, that’s equally productive to completing a demanding task at work. And it’s similarly productive to having a great focus workout in terms of my health domain.
How do you keep track of everything?
Most of my work and personal data are in Notion. Some of my fitness related stuff is in Whoop or Apple Health, which I’m working to extract into Notion.
What does your system look like?
I manage all my tasks and calendar appointments in (you guessed it) Notion.
My personal workspace is centered more around wellness, nutrition and fitness tracking.
What is something few people know about you?
My career was launched when I enrolled at NYU and started a company. But I didn’t graduate and that venture failed. I got to NYU in the first place after getting kicked out of high school but learning to bounce back and tell a good story.
Anything new or important you’d like to mention to the readers?
I recently re-started posting on Twitter. That’s my rawest self. Follow me there: https://twitter.com/optemized.
Links
Interested in contributing – fill out this form
Know someone that would be a great fit – comment on this letter or reach out to me on Twitter