Hello #obsidianmd community! It's been a while since I've made a video. I figured I'd jump back in with a basic MacOS shortcut I use daily. This creates an Interstitial Journal entry, even when I'm not in @obsdmd . Thread version below 🧵👇
https://www.loom.com/share/e4f1d3ad65464bce95243bf27aeb0ed4

The first challenge I realized is that the daily note needs to exist first. If it doesn't, all I end up with is my journal entry on an otherwise blank daily note. So I need to check for the daily note file. Here is the entire shortcut screenshot for context.

Let's break this shortcut down into smaller chunks. The first thing I need to do is set up the date and time that @obsdmd expects for the Daily Note.

To do that, I run another helper shortcut I created to format the date and time. I could have placed this all in one shortcut, but I wanted to be able to reuse as much as I could in other shortcuts down the road. 👍

Let's take a look at the "Format Date - Obsidian" shortcut. Once this runs, the output is captured in "dateTimeParameters" as the output. IJ Entry will use this output to store the Date and Timestamp needed later.

Next, I need to check if the Daily Notes file actually exists. If it doesn't, the IJ Entry will just add itself to a new, blank daily note without any of my template text.

Let's take a look at the File Exist Daily shortcut.
Here's where I would have liked to store the entire path as a variable to make this shortcut check for ANY file (not just a file in my Daily Notes directory). If someone knows how to do this, let me know. 🙏

If the file does not exist, we need to create it with my final helper shortcut, "Create Daily Note".

Let's take a look at the "Create Daily Note" shortcut. Here is where it is important to capture the original shortcut name (IJ Entry) because it needs to run again to perform the file check after the Daily Note is created.

Back to IJ Entry. It will go through the file check again, but this time it should continue because the file is there. The rest of the shortcut asks for the journal entry text, constructs the journal entry, and appends it to the daily note.

Here's the entire workflow for my IJ Entry Shortcut.

The result after a few runs of the IJ Entry shortcut.

This same shortcut workflow can be adapted to create any entry, not just Daily Notes. Since I broke some of the shortcuts into their own helper shortcuts, I can just reuse those for other workflows. I hope this helps someone in the #obsidianmd community. I use it every day!

Interstitial Journal Entry in Obsidian With a MacOS Shortcut

1/ Hello #obsidianmd community! I'm sharing a quick tip today to automatically organize repeated note types in @obsdmd .

2/ Throughout the day, I find myself creating notes of the same type or category. I have two options when linking these notes:
1. Find the appropriate folder in my PARA hierarchy. Create the new note there. Link.
2. Create the new note on-the-fly by creating a link and clicking.

3/ Option 1 guarantees organization, while option 2 is better for fluidity of thought / writing. I prefer option two, but do not want to (or forget to) manually move the notes after I create them. So I end up with a bunch of notes in my vault root that clutter up my structure.

4/ So I started using Hazel by @NoodleSoft to automatically organize certain types of notes after I create them. My rules generally follow some pattern and trigger when the note is older than 1 day.

5/ For example, all of my meetings notes have "-Meeting" somewhere in the title of the note. All of my screenshots and other pictures are typically PNG. So I create Hazel rules to automatically file them to the appropriate folders.

6/ Each of these Hazel rules are triggered when the matching conditions are met. I add an extra condition of "Date Added is before Today" so that the notes don't get moved while I'm working on them.

7/ By letting Hazel do most of the work around filing my @obsdmd notes, I can just concentrate on writing and thinking!

You can read the unrolled version of this thread here: https://typefully.com/hstagner/Px7OLiO

Automatic Note Filing With Obsidian and Hazel

IEP teams, would you be okay with crossing the street safely only 64% of the time? If not, then why would you expect parents to accept that number in an #IEP goal? Read more in my latest @Medium article:
https://hstagner.medium.com/can-we-stop-normalizing-80-percent-for-iep-goals-794784e8cbc2

1/ I'm going to talk about Individualized Education Plans (#IEP). If you have a child who may have special needs or have dealt with IEPs, this thread is for you. You are seen. This is a reality for many parents, myself included. It takes months of real hours and frustration. 🧵👇

2/ And as a side-note, if you still use ableist language and slurs in your everyday vernacular, you might want to reconsider your values after reading this one fraction of what a person with special needs and their parents have to go through.

3/ I have just spent the past couple of months (this year) preparing for my child's upcoming IEP meeting. This exercise is a combination of detective work, assumptions, and documentation. Documentation is key. Getting needed services is often an exercise in attrition.

4/ Backing up. Where did the concept of an IEP come from in the US? I'll link the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA) site if you want to go further down that rabbit hole. Basically the main goal (taken from the website) is:
https://sites.ed.gov/idea/about-idea/

5/ "To ensure that all children with disabilities have available to them a free appropriate public education that emphasizes special education and related services designed to meet their unique needs and prepare them for further education, employment, and independent living."

6/ The phrase "free appropriate public education" is important. There is a provision in section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 that handles enforcement to access and the rights of parents and students regarding FAPE.

7/ There is a one-pager from understood.org that I use to understand the basics. https://assets.ctfassets.net/p0qf7j048i0q/3SxlMzMGCZDKd7RvcGwi91/21678677a199e994f53be0cbf84ed54a/Free_and_Appropriate_Public_Education__FAPE__Understood.pdf

8/ Free means that the education and services needed for your child should be at no extra cost to families. The government pays for this.

9/ Appropriate means that if your child qualifies, they are entitled to an IEP with services to meet their unique educational needs. Appropriate is where the battles for services often play out due to multiple conflicting interests. More on that later in the thread.

10/ Public means supervised by a public school. Your child's experience may vary wildly depending on school district. I'm sure there are some that do this extremely well. The issue is that it varies from state to state and district to district.

11/ Education can include special education and related services, like speech therapy, occupational therapy, vision assessments, etc.

12/ This all sounds fairly straightforward until you actually try to go down the road of obtaining an IEP, then deciding on goals and services. In my experience that the process breaks down in a few key areas: Obtaining, Deciding on Goals / Services, and Deciding Appropriate.

13/ Unless you've been through this, my words will not likely give you a complete sense of the frustration that come along with the seemingly sisyphean task of navigating the IEP process.

14/ The first hurdle is obtaining an IEP. To do this, the school has to agree that there is an issue and start a barrage of assessments that may include, for example, psychological, occupational, speech, educational, and social assessments. This is not an exhaustive list.

15/ After the assessments, the IEP team (which includes the parents) will determine if your child qualifies for an IEP. My child has #DownSyndrome. In that case, determining the need for services was pretty straightforward as my child has a clear diagnosis.

16/ In other cases, such as undiagnosed ADHD or Dyslexia it might be more of a fight to get services. It might be more of a fight to even get the school system to start assessments. Even if you do get an assessment, they may not determine your child needs an IEP.

17/ If you still feel that your child needs an IEP, you can file a "due process" claim to get a third-party assessment. Due process is used for dispute resolution in the IEP process for a number of items.

18/ If the team has determined that your child qualifies for IEP services, then those services must be determined, including supports and goals to be worked on in the Least Restrictive Environment (LRE). LRE can vary based on your child's needs and starts with an open class.

19/ LRE means that if your child can be educated along their peers, that is where they belong. This is true even if supports are needed. In my case I wanted my child to spend some time in a special education classroom, mixing for resources like PE or ART.

20/ It is important for socialization and normalization of people with special needs to be amongst their peers and not just with others with special needs. It benefits the child with special needs and the other children who will come to see them as children like any other.

21/ Deciding on goals, services, and accommodations is another area where the IEP process can break down. The APPROPRIATE portion of FAPE is ripe for disagreement. The reason for this is that these determinations are often at odds with state-level standards testing.

22/ For example, I have determined that my high level vision for my child aligns mostly with the three areas of IDEA. Further education, independent living, and future employment, with Independent Living the funnel through which all goals flow. My child NEEDS life skills.

23/ Since this is the case, I have opted for my child to obtain an Applied Studies Diploma. In Virginia, this curriculum is mapped by a series of skills and skill levels. There is not a grade-level mapping because the individual may be at different skill levels than typical.

24/ More info on Virginia's Applied Studies Diploma can be found here: https://www.doe.virginia.gov/instruction/graduation/applied_studies/index.shtml

25/ A skill level mapping is the right approach because there is no grade-level mapping available that can account for a child with special needs and cognitive delays. It doesn't make sense to compare their progress to a grade level standard.

26/ However, there is a very disappointing process in my state that requires students on an Applied Studies Diploma track to sit for the Virginia Alternate Assessment Program (VAAP). This program is similar to the SOL in that it is a standardized test that maps to a GRADE LEVEL!

27/ As a parent of a child with special needs, this is maddening! I need my child to learn how to count mixed coins, make change, learn personal info (address, etc.), learn what to do in an emergency, count to 100, or learn her days, months, year and recall them on demand.

28/ VAAP has my child trying to find the area of a 2d geometric shape! We are at the recalling the day of the week level. This is where I feel the Individualized part of the #IEP is at odds with the standards.

29/ Since I have researched this and experienced it myself, I know that children with Down Syndrome often learn best with a multi-sensory approach. Pictures, manipulatives, and social stories go a long way towards overcoming the limited working memory in children like mine.

30/ There is simply not enough time to implement these strategies if the teacher is focused on the standards required in the VAAP. My child has often come home with cramped black and white worksheets dealing with abstract concepts that are way above her head.

31/ How do they get away with things like this? Often the education team will use the IEP to provide for things like calculators on tests. Instead of taking a unique approach tailored to my child's INDIVIDUAL needs, they teach her to punch in numbers on a calculator to pass.

32/ These shortcuts are reflected in exaggerated grades and progress reports that DO NOT match the lived experience of my child's actual progress. It is disheartening and frustrating. An IEP is very data driven, so with data like that good luck getting additional services. 🤷‍♂️

33/ This is why it is extremely important to keep good records and data. Do your own assessments of their progress at home and document it!

34/ I scan every piece of school work that is sent home for my child so I have a comparison year to year. I video her from time to time doing the exercises in the worksheets and compare the results to implementing the same lessons with manipulatives or other muli-sensory tools.

35/ I keep copious notes about everything that was said at an IEP meeting and how it may or may not align with my vision for my child. I use apps like @obsdmd and @craftdocsapp to stay organized and share my findings with the IEP team. I use @readwiseio to document research.

36/ Fighting for my child's educational rights through an #IEP is a full-time job on top of my full-time job of parenting on top of my full-time job. If you are exhausted reading this thread, imagine what it might be like to actually go through this process.

37/ The school system will try to throw multiple acronyms at parents and expect them to keep up. You have acronyms like IEP, LRE, VAAP, PWN. You have documents to keep up with that outline your rights and responsibilities with the IEP process. Long, legal documents.

38/ If you are in the midst of starting or have been dealing with the IEP process for a while, I feel for you. It's not an easy road, but with some tools and data you can do it. If you don't ask for it, it usually won't happen. Keep this in mind as you navigate through this.

39/ If you do not have a loved one dealing with an #IEP or have never dealt with it yourself, please just keep in mind that when you meet a parent of a child with special needs, that momentary interaction is an iceberg of both triumphs and frustrations. Be patient. Be kind.

40/ If you found this thread helpful, that makes me extremely happy. Please consider liking, sharing, or retweeting the first tweet in this thread. It needs to be normalized to show that people with special needs and their loved ones go through more than one might imagine.

41/ As a bonus, here is an example of how I use @craftdocsapp to map out goals for my child. Each section of the Applied Studies Diploma Skills Mapping is a Page that dives further into specific goals that map to those skills. Craft makes it easy to share this with the #IEP team.

Navigating the IEP Process

1/ To-do’s, time-boxing, ABCDE, Pomodoro, Sprints, Etc. Etc. Etc. It seems like there are as many ways to “Get Things Done” as there are “Things to Get Done.” I’m burned out. It’s been refreshing to keep a simple system for once. Reminders and a Calendar. A thread. 👇🧵

2/ I’m not knocking these other systems. I just think that I can sometimes go too far with optimizing my productivity versus actually being productive.

3/ One small example that I got sucked in to a few years back was a statement along the lines of “The most successful people don’t use to-do lists”

4/ Then, inevitably, an article tied to that statement would go on to articulate how Bill Gates or Richard Branson, or “Some Other Executive” would NEVER use a to-do list. “Can you imagine?” “How utterly quaint and pedestrian.”

5/ The connotation is that if you want to have success like these people, you need to manage your day like they do! Boom! Success! You know what? So, I abandoned to-do apps for a while. Then I realized…

6/ I’m not any of those people and that’s okay. I have a full-time job, a family, a number of conflicting commitments, people making demands on my time, and a set number of productive hours in any given day.

7/ What I also DO NOT have is a personal assistant, administrative assistant, or a staff. The Executive MAY not use a to-do list, but I’m willing to bet that someone in that Executive’s staff IS. They just pre-filter it and let the Exec know what’s up.

8/ Me? I’ve got Apple Reminders with a little filtering and it lets me know what I should be doing. With a little planning ahead and light prioritizing, it works surprisingly well for me. And it alleviates the stress of not feeling in control.

9/ Now, my pomodoro is telling me it’s time to end this thread. I’ll take a 5 minute snack break and see what exciting new projects my next time-box has in store for me.

Productivity: Keep it Simple

1/ A little word about #GTD and tools. I am currently in the process of revisiting and potentially redesigning my GTD system as I have fallen out of the habit over the years. A thread. 👇🧵

2/ I did okay for a while and was chugging along. Then, I fell back into an age old habit of mine. I read a blog post about GTD. BIG MISTAKE! My system planning and learning was thrown off by days!

3/ I fell into a trap I know all to well. I started “optimizing” my current toolset to do all kinds of cool automations and workflows that could “theoretically” be useful one day. I had to remember remembered a promise I made to myself about 3 principles.
https://twitter.com/hstagner/status/1483131598446882817?s=21

4/ To go along with those 3 principles I reminded myself that “NO TOOL IS SACRED”
https://twitter.com/hstagner/status/1483131599596097538?s=21

5/ To that end, I have, for now, abandoned @draftsapp for capture (I still use it for many other things). There are really 2 reasons for this.

6/ - I thought about what UBIQUITOUS meant to me. @draftsapp is multi-device, but there’s something even more ubiquitous for me.

7/ - @draftsapp allows me to do TOO MANY custom, crazy, wonderful things with integration and automation. I wasn’t actually Getting Anything DONE!

8/ I’m in the @Apple ecosystem, so I started using Apple Reminders for capture and I found out that it can be a very competent task management solution. It just never occurred to me to put any thought into actually using it in that manner. I did and now I’m fairly productive.

9/ - Reminders is Ubiquitous (It’s a default option on all of my devices)

- Reminders processing is fast and intuitive

-I know WHY I’m using Reminders. It has the right amount of features to get the job done. Not so many that it will distract me.

10/ Bonus: 

I can easily teach using Apple Reminders to my high schooler to get organized as preparation for adulthood transition. No need for extra apps. She has a capture method that is familiar across her iPhone and iPad. Even chrome book if she logs into her iCloud account.

11/ So what did I learn?
https://twitter.com/hstagner/status/1483234781383045129?s=21

12/ I learned that for my CORE capture and todo processing less is more. One day I might need something more powerful. For now, I’m much happier and healthier just Getting Things DONE!

GTD: Less Optimizing, More Doing

1/ I have a 13 year old with Down Syndrome. Here is an example of a small interaction that I wish would go differently, but rarely does. Sometimes I have the time and patience to have a discussion in real time. Sometimes not. A thread 👇 🧵

2/ I take my daughter to the doctor many times per year. Often this means a needle (blood work, vaccine, etc.). This is where I COULD talk about how I mentally prepare her. Talk to her about what is going to happen ahead of time when we get to the doctor.

3/ That does not work. Not when I have done it and not when a well-intentioned medical professional does it. I tell her we are going to the doctor and how long it might take. When we get there, I tell her what is about to happen and that it will take just a moment.

4/ You know what? She's fine. We chat. The deed is done. No tears. No anxiety.

5/ If the, well-intentioned, medical professional tells her it's going to be okay or talks about it and tries to explain that it's no big deal, there are tears, anxiety, and fidgeting. It becomes a struggle. Why?

6/ Kids with Down Syndrome don't process information in the same way that neurotypical children do. In many cases, they may not have developed the ability to process upcoming events at all. This leads to anxiety and questioning. Questioning that cannot be processed to resolution.

7/ So what can be done? I wish I had read this book years ago. If you truly want to understand on a pragmatic level start here: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29331083-supporting-positive-behavior-in-children-and-teens-with-down-syndrome

8/ Some small steps:

- Many kids with Down Syndrome look smaller than their age. Despite this, try not to infantalize them. When in doubt, talk to them like you would a teenager.

- Kids with DS can handle a lot. The world tries to keep them young. Respect them, instead.

9/ If you learned something new today, that's awesome! 🙌 

That was my goal for my daughter. If this resonated with you, consider sharing the first tweet in this thread so others can learn as well. 

Thank you.

Interstitial Journal Entry in Obsidian With a MacOS Shortcut

Automatic Note Filing With Obsidian and Hazel

Navigating the IEP Process

Productivity: Keep it Simple

GTD: Less Optimizing, More Doing

Down Syndrome: Staying Calm at the Doctor's Office