Daily Plan New

Schedule from a sub-experiment

If the protocol already lists its steps, you don't have to type them in one by one. Next to the add row in Today's plan and on the Plan page, click "Schedule a sub-experiment", pick a sub-experiment and a start time, and Vara lays its steps into your plan in order and by duration.

1. Pick an experiment, then a sub-experiment; you can search by name. Experiments shared with you in a lab group are listed too, and view access is enough to put them in your own plan.
2. Choose the start date and time, and either "One item per step" or "One item for the whole sub-experiment".
3. The preview shows each row's start and end time. You can edit the duration and switch the type (hands-on / wait / prep). Anything that runs past midnight moves to the next day, with the date shown at the start of the row, so "seed in the afternoon, incubate overnight, treat the next morning" works out.
4. Steps without a duration in the protocol show "Unknown". Fill in a duration or tick Skip before you confirm; Vara won't guess. If the sub-experiment has a total duration and none of its steps do, "Split the total evenly" fills them in and marks them as estimates.
5. Rows that overlap something already in your plan say so (for example "Overlaps "Lab meeting" at 14:00"). It is only a warning; wait steps such as incubations never count as overlaps. If this sub-experiment is already planned on that day, a note at the top tells you.
6. If you can edit the sub-experiment, you can tick "Save the durations you entered to the protocol" (off by default) so you won't need to enter them next time. Estimated durations are not saved.
7. To keep hands-on work out of the middle of the night, tick "Only within working hours" (off by default; 09:00 to 21:00 unless you change it). Hands-on and prep steps that fall outside these hours move to the start of the next working period; wait steps such as incubations and overnight steps are not limited and still run overnight.

Each result is an ordinary plan item titled "Sub-experiment · Step", with "Wait: " in front of wait steps. Click the sub-experiment name on an item to open it at that step. Up to 50 items at a time; if you change the protocol later, items already scheduled stay as they are.

Postpone, retime or delete a group

Items scheduled together from one sub-experiment form a group, and each of them gets a "Group actions" button. When the cells need another day, move the whole group instead of editing items one by one.

• Postpone or bring forward: enter a number of days (1 to 30, default 1). Every item in the group moves by that many days, and the gaps between them stay the same.
• Change the start time: the earliest item not yet done moves to the new time and the rest shift by the same amount; anything that crosses midnight moves to the previous or next day.
• Delete the group: after you confirm, every item in the group is deleted, including items on other days and items already done. When the protocol changes, delete the group and schedule it again.
• Items already ticked done stay where they are, so they keep the time you actually did them. Group actions are on the web for now; on Mac and iPhone these items show and can be ticked done as usual.

Repeating items: passaging, media changes

Passaging and media changes are counted from the day you last did them. Set an item to "Every N days after done" and when you tick it done, Vara schedules the next one N days after the day you finished it, with the same title, time and linked experiment.

1. Click the repeat icon on the right of an item and pick 1 / 2 / 3 / 7 days, or "Custom days" for 1 to 60. On a phone, tap edit first; the icon is in the edit row.
2. You can also end the text with "every 3 days" when adding. The line under the input shows "Repeats 3 days after done", and those words are left out of the title.
3. Repeating items show the repeat icon and the number of days. The next item is an ordinary item: it shows up on its day, and you can retime or delete it as usual.
4. Ticked it by mistake? Untick it the same day and the item it just created goes away too. If you already changed that next item, it stays.

Only "every N days after done" is supported; there is no fixed-date repeat such as "every Monday". The repeat setting can be changed on the web and through a connected AI for now; ticking an item done in the Mac app also creates the next one once it syncs.

Subscribe in your phone or computer calendar

Under Settings → Data → Calendar subscription, click "Create subscription link". Plan items from the past 30 days to the next 180 days then show up in your calendar app. It is read-only: edits made in the calendar app are not written back to Vara.

1. iPhone / Mac / Outlook: click "Subscribe in calendar app" and confirm when prompted.
2. Google Calendar: click "Copy link", open Google Calendar on a computer, click + next to "Other calendars", choose "From URL", and paste the link. Google Calendar on your phone picks up the subscription automatically.

• Timed items show at the clock time you entered, whatever time zone you are in. Items without a time show as all-day events.
• Timed items that are not done yet come with a reminder 15 minutes before (Apple Calendar supports it; Google Calendar ignores reminders in subscribed calendars).
• Your calendar app decides how often to refresh, usually every hour to once a day, so changes in Vara won't show up right away.
• The link is private: anyone who has it can see your plan. If it leaks, click "Reset link". The old link stops working right away; subscribe again with the new one.