Segregating work and personal systems

[DavidH]

In an ideal world my work laptop would be the central hub for my GTD system. I am trying to implement GTD but there is one issue that is keeping me from going all in. That is the problem associated with having personal data on my work laptop. If you dismiss the privacy concerns there are still real legal issues that arise by commingling my work and personal projects on my work laptop. Trying to maintain two systems is really hindering my adoption of the GTD lifestyle.

How have you all dealt with this issue in your GTD systems?

[PeterW]

I use an online (web-based) system so all of my data is in the cloud and not on the company's internal systems. Which means I can access it via the work computer or the home computer. It syncs with my iPhone and iPad so my data is available everywhere.

[DavidH]

Web-based systems are great but they raise a whole new set of legal concerns. My employer expressly forbids using things like Dropbox, Skydrive, etc... to store work documents. I'm sure they would frown upon using a web-based system for GTD.

[PeterW]

The company I work for wouldn't want internal documents stored on third-party servers either. I don't use my web-based system to do that. It's simply a task list and there is nothing in it that divulges sensitive information. Tasks can still be quite descriptive yet pose no risk of exposure.

If that's not something you think you can do then I guess you're stuck with having two systems, which is not ideal.

[DavidH]

I agree the task lists aren't as sensitive. My main concern is that I have lots of digital project reference material and email which are often linked to tasks. I use Outlook and OneNote currently which makes linking and cross-referencing fairly painless. How do you handle your reference material? Does your web-based system allow you to link next actions with supporting documents?

[PeterW]

The company I work for has a very structured filing system so I always know where documents are located, whether they are soft copies or hard copies.

I occasionally put a note on the task if the reference material isn't what I think is its logical location. For digital copies this will just be a path to a folder.

Some web-based systems allow you to attach documents to tasks and I've tried that but in environments where documents are shared you can run into issues of version control.

[Oogiem]

How have you all dealt with this issue in your GTD systems?

Quit working for someone else so I am in control of both work and personal life.
However my solution isn't reasonable for most folks.

My suggestion, treat work and personal like classified systems. Have capture for the other system in both places but process and handle them separately with 2 weekly reviews.

[CJSullivan]

In my case, I have two discrete systems. My work system is in the company-sanctioned Outlook, and my personal system is a hybrid of paper & Evernote. I've done paper for both, but it's just so much easier to drag emails into Tasks in Outlook than set up a bunch of email-based folders and write the task on a paper list... It really depends on your average turnaround time and level of work, I think. My work is predominantly administrative (at the day job) so quick turnaround and drag-and-drop work for me.

My personal is another story, and has a number of different components that I won't go into here. I'm currently experimenting with a combination of paper/digital. I typically go back-and-forth between all paper, all digital, and a combination thereof. And I'm OK with that. If I'm in a particularly tactile frame of mind, there's nothing like paper. If I want portability and quick review, I go digital.

[radioman]

Without getting into a lot of down-stream issues, the ones that I faced on this very question boil down to 2 key issues.

1. Will your employer allow you to wire or wirelessly sync your smart phone into his computer system on which you have your work Outlook account? (I have just made a lot of assumptions, one of which is that you work for someone else and that you use a similar setup that I do, namely smart phone and Outlook.)

2. Are you willing to live with your employer's likely requirements that Outlook (and probably your smart phone) are subject to inspection or even confiscation at any time if he wants to exercise full control over his data that resides in the same places as your personal data?

In my case, the answer to both questions is a resounding "no," so I keep my systems as separate as I can. My work day is pretty much during the day on weekdays, so my smart phone calendar has very little on it for those hours. About the only time that I have to show duplicate appointments is when I have to leave work for a personal appointment (e.g.,doctor's visit). I need to show that on my work calendar so that I (and anyone looking at my work calendar) know that I have to be out of the office.

The only other "work thing" that I can think of that is on my smart phone is an encrypted set of passwords to my various work accounts (along with all of my personal ones) in an Android app.

In spite of all of this "separateness," there is almost no duplication. I always cite the old saying: "A man with one watch knows what time it is; a man with two is never sure." So, each data record resides in only one place (that is backed up somewhere, via sync'ing or otherwise), but the whole set of data happens to reside in 2 places, namely work and personal devices.

I hope this helps.

Joe

[Suelin23]

I have two separate systems on my home and work laptops. The only common thing that ties it altogether is my NA lists which are on my iPhone, and have both work and home in the same list system.