Every session is built from blocks. Each block is an item in your agenda that represents an activity in your session, for instance: a theory block, an exercise or a break.
Each block has a duration assigned to it that you can modify, and the start time of the block is calculated from the start time and duration of the preceding block in your session.
To the right of this is a grey vertical bar where you select a colour-coded category to apply for this block if you click on the small arrow, as well as this is the area you should click in order to drag and drop your block (by clicking on the three vertical dots).
Apart from the timing and category, for each block you can add the following information:
Title
Description and Additional information - these two columns are always visible in the Session Planner tool, though you can choose to hide the Additional information field
Goals, Materials, Instructions and Background information that are visible under the Block details tab.
Apart from the types of fields listed above, there is no option to add extra fields or columns to record block-level information in the Session Planner tool. However, if you'd like to add extra information to a method, then you could use the Goals field in the Block details area.
Creating a block
To create a new block, click on the plus icon on the left of the block, and choose 'Block'
Clicking on the plus icon above or below the block you're currently working on will add a block before or after it:
As well as creating new blocks in your sessions, you can also reuse existing blocks both from your other sessions or from the library of facilitation methods if you use the Library tab on the right-hand sidebar. See more examples and illustrations in this article about how to find and reuse blocks.
Is there an option to add pre-session activities?
There isn't a dedicated feature to show session-pre work, but the easiest way to represent this would be to create a block with a duration of 0 minutes (so it won’t show up on the left-hand sidebar or add to your session timing), and add there any required pre-session notes.
Moving blocks
One of the essential features of the Session Planner tool is that you can easily move your blocks around the session by simply dragging and dropping them into the right place.
Similarly, if you think that a certain block should be removed from the agenda but you are not yet sure whether you want to delete it permanently, you can just drag it to the Parking Lot area on the right side to park it. When you do so, your timing will be automatically updated, since the blocks in the Parking Lot area do not count towards the overall time of your agenda. If you want the blocks in the Parking Lot area to be used again in your session plan, just drag them back to the middle area and into your agenda.
To move your blocks around the agenda, click and drag on the dotted menu on the left side of a block: