When implementing Confluence, we often look to streamline communication, foster collaboration and knowledge sharing. I mean this is what Confluence is designed for. But more often than not, we focus so much on collaboration that we kind of neglect the employee’s personal space. How many times have you thought: I just want to brainstorm in peace. I want to write a draft that nobody can see then share it with the team. You might think this is counter productive: It’s not. Like in a relationship, your employees need their own personal space.
In this article, we will see why you need a personal space in Confluence and how you can make the most out of it.
What is a Confluence Personal Space?
Site > Space > Page. This is your common Confluence structure. You have a site for your entire business, space for each team, and pages where work happens. But what if I need a space where I can be myself, organize my work, and brainstorm ideas before sharing them? This is when your teams rely heavily on their own notepads. I wish I had the stats to back my claim, but I am sure you know someone (or maybe even you) worked on notepads or google docs before 😀.
This is where a Confluence personal space comes into play. It’s a private (or semi-private, depending on permissions) space where you can organize your thoughts, manage personal projects, and keep drafts.
While team spaces are great for collaboration, personal spaces are ideal for getting your ideas in order and working at your own pace when you can.
Why Should You Use a Confluence Personal Space?
Better organization and work management:
Team spaces are great, but they come with their own challenges. Ever struggled to find that one note you saved weeks ago amidst all your shared space content? Shared and team space are where work should happen. But for the specific projects we’re working on, we might as well make copies and keep them on our personal Confluence spaces. This will help you stay organized and facilitate access to key information and projects you’re working on.
Boost productivity:
Looking for information across Confluence spaces is among the many challenges we face on a daily basis. Time that we can otherwise spend on more productive tasks. With all your work stored and organized in one place, you’ll spend less time hunting for information and more time getting things done. For a Product Marketer like me, I have to constantly collaborate with Marketing, Product and Sales on a variety of projects. This means three spaces to constantly go through, and of course, the dedicated project hubs. This can take me time to go over. With my personal Confluence space, I can store all useful info for quick access.
Encourages experimentation & innovation:
We all have some new initiatives that we want to test before sharing with the team. One might argue, you can create an innovation space in Confluence. But we need our privacy. Sometimes we might fear judgment and prefer to brainstorm freely without worrying about someone accidentally stumbling upon our half-finished work. Try out new templates, macros, and layouts without the fear of making mistakes in a shared space. Your personal space is a sandbox for testing and learning.
Facilitate employee onboarding:
Your personal space is about but not only you. Personal spaces make it easier for new hires to know who is who at the company. Sure, this information can be available within dedicated spaces and the organizational chart. But both don’t really offer in-depth information about individuals. You can have a dedicated section within your personal space to present yourself, share your experiences, and any other useful information for new comers.
Best Practices to Organize your Confluence Personal Space
Your personal space is structured the same way as a regular space. You have a centralized homepage and all the features: pages, whiteboards, databases, you name it. Which one should you include and how can you properly organize your space? These are a couple of best practices to organize my personal space in Confluence.
Set up your homepage:
Start with an overview that ties everything together. Confluence provides a sample template which you can build upon. First, you have an intro, then the pages you’ve recently worked on, and useful contacts. This is a good start but you can add more. Add links to your current projects, upcoming tasks, and favorite team spaces. The goal? A centralized hub where you can navigate your personal space effortlessly.
Personalize your sidebar with native Confluence features:
Here you’ll decide which features you want to work with and display within your personal space. And you’re not short in options: you’ve got whiteboards, automation, databases, folders, and even links to specific Jira projects. You can work with all features or just a selected few. And the latter is the better option to make things organized. Personally, whiteboards and blogs are an absolute must-have at the start. Other advanced features such as automations are better suited for collaborative usage and team spaces.
Your sidebar also helps you include shortcuts for more important pieces of work. These shortcuts are not only useful for you, but for visitors. They group important content and facilitate navigation. There you can add your important notes or knowledge articles for visitors.
Stay organized with page trees:
A great way to organize spaces is, of course, page trees. And the same applies to your personal Confluence space. They help you create a distinct hierarchy and facilitate navigation for you and visitors. The structure is simple. Start with folders or parent pages within which you will include child items. The latter can be a page, whiteboard, or database. But what’s the difference between a folder and a parent page? Generally, there’s no difference in the way they function. They’re both used as containers. The only difference though is the content you’ll add within each. A parent page is… well a page that you’ve got to fill. Folders on the other hand, only serve as containers. So if you only need a container to organize your content go for folders.
You can organize your page tree by themes, projects, and anyway you see fit. For example, as a product marketer, I organize my page tree as follows: Useful resources by team: Marketing, Product and Sales. Then, I have my personal notes, brainstorming space and any resources I want to share with visitors.
Create your own brainstorming zone with Confluence whiteboards:
Some of the best ideas start as random scribbles. Dedicate a section of your personal space for brainstorming. This could be a single “catch-all” page or a collection of pages for different themes—whatever works for you.
Here, you can use Confluence whiteboards to mind-map ideas, collect research, or even just jot down those “what if” moments that pop into your head. Don’t worry about structure—this is your creative playground.
Build your own personal FAQ:
While team FAQs are great for documenting broad processes and shared workflows, they often miss the mark when it comes to the nuances of individual roles or expertise. That’s where a personal FAQ comes in. Here you can share specific “how-tos” or personal insights that come from years of hands-on experience. To create your FAQ, you can leverage native Confluence features or go with an advanced FAQ app for more customization and advanced features.
Personal spaces are perhaps one of the most underrated features in Confluence. Although perceived as a hurdle for collaboration by some, they encourage experimentation, better organization, and knowledge sharing. Often what starts in a personal space can grow and be shared with the entire organization. The above best practices are based on my own experience, and have helped me transform my personal space into a productive and dynamic hub. Whether you’re just getting started or looking to optimize your setup, I hope these tips inspire you to make the most of your personal space.
