5 Reasons for a Digital Church and State

There was a time not to long ago when someone would start their careers at a company and would likely spend the rest of their careers there. I’m not referring to the summer jobs that people would (and still do) typically bounce around, but the post-education jobs that people take to support themselves and their families. In that situation, it was easy to understand why they would accumulate so much stuff at their offices; files, plaques, and other things that working people acquire throughout their careers. In the case of the generation before mine, this translated to having only one e-mail (namely their work e-mail) and one calendar.

 

Nowadays people are more likely to bounce between a few different companies before settling on one. Yes, some people find a company they work with and stick with it for their whole career, but it’s becoming less frequent.

 

Why do I mention this? Well in the digital world where our calendars and correspondence and information, in general, are becoming more and more digitized, it’s essential to have a dividing line between work life and home life when it comes to your digital information. I have three main practices that I use in my daily life to maintain a digital church and state;

 

1) Maintain a personal e-mail – How will people who don’t see you on a regular basis stay in touch, if you rely solely on your work e-mail and then decide to switch jobs? On one side of this scale you have Friends and family who will have to update their contact lists every time you change jobs, and on the other hand there will be a verity of bill collectors etc. who will wonder where you go when you give them a work e-mail as your contact info and then switch jobs. Having a personal e-mail is the only way to maintain continuity. That way anyone who wants to get in touch with you, can.

 

2) Maintain a personal calendar – if you’re anything like me, when you look at your work calendar the view you have is Monday to Friday, 8-5. My life in general, however, exists way outside those parameters. I have stuff scheduled before and after most weekdays, and all kinds of things on the weekends. My packed schedule is why it’s essential to maintain a personal calendar because your life exists outside of work. I’m wary of putting private events on a work calendar unless the meeting effects explicitly my work (for example a Doctor’s appointment during work hours). Not unlike with the e-mail, If you leave your job, you will have to reset up your date in your new work calendar. If you’re like me and have a bunch of recurring events (like birthdays and anniversaries) you want to maintain that continuity in a space that you will have even if you leave your job

 

3) Maintain a personal Cloud – Everyone has files to keep, both personal and professional. More and more of these files are digital, so you need to find a space for that. If your work provides you with a digital space to keep your data, then I would highly recommend keeping ONLY your work files there. If you keep personal records in your workspace (depending on what IT policies your company has) your documents may be subject to the policies of your company, and would not strictly belong to you.

 

 

4) Maintain a personal contact list – If you’re like most people, when you get someone’s business card you input the information into an e-mail system and then forget about it. If you do this for your contacts (like your plumber, dentist, etc.) and save them to your work account, the contact does not belong to you, and if/when you leave the company you might not be able to take the information with you. Most mainstream e-mail systems have a “Contacts” area that they use, so make sure that when you are saving your contacts on your phone or computer, you are keeping your contacts to your list and your work contacts to your work list. On the interface you use to access your contacts (phone computer etc.) they may appear to be all on one list, but they won’t be.

 

5) Maintain a “personal folder” on your work computer – If you work for a company that allows you to do this, then I would recommend that you maintain some form of “personal Documents” folder on your work computer. Your personal folder is a great space for you to keep things like Personnel reviews or other personal documents that you might want to hang on to it and when you switch jobs.

 

WARNING; Always check with your IT or compliance officer before doing this. If your company does not allow you to keep these documents, then you will not be allowed to maintain a personal folder like this at work. If this is the case, you can keep your personal documents.

 

I find that having a difference between your Professional Digital Life and your Personal Digital Life is comforting because it makes it easier for you to live separately from your job. Careers are significant, however, having a career is no longer defined as “being at one company for 25+ years.” People are going between a few different companies, and it’s a good practice to maintain a personal digital home base which, not unlike a physical home, you can always go back to no matter where you work.

 

Do you separate your work life and your personal life?