Open up skyward.io in something other than Internet Explorer. ( I used Chrome)
Go to Map
Use the pencil icon and select the box
draw a box around your flight area by starting in upper left drag to the lower right and llift mouse. It will prompt for a flight area name.
Go to Plan
Fill in dates / times etc.
click blue select flight area and it will be the one you created in the map
It will jump to the map and on the plus beside the name, click it and select add to operation
it will jump back to plan
In the upper screen right below the skyward name, type in the name of the operation. (I missed this a bunch of time)
Then click submit authorization