One of Google Sheets' many hidden features is its timeline view. While it has disappointingly few (some might say none!) flux capacitors, lightning rods, or world-ending paradoxes, it does allow you to create a Gantt chart in Google Sheets, filling in a feature gap that Sheets has had for a few years now. And you don't even need to source any plutonium to power it.
Table of contents:
How to adjust the settings for your Google Sheets Gantt chart
Why use a Gantt chart in Google Sheets instead of another app?
What is a Gantt chart in Google Sheets?
A Gantt chart in Google Sheets is a project management view—specifically, the timeline view—that lets you visualize a project's timeline, tasks, and dependencies between tasks. In other words, the Gantt chart lets you view your spreadsheet data chronologically rather than in millions of tiny cells. It helps you make sense of the world in a way that might actually, you know, make sense.
Gantt chart template for Google Sheets
I'm nothing if not full of Google Sheets templates, so here's a Gantt chart template to get you started. You'll need to customize the columns and tinker with the settings to get it exactly how you want it, but this should give you a head start.
How to make a Gantt chart in Google Sheets
Here's the short version of how to make a Gantt chart in Google Sheets (keep scrolling for detailed steps with screenshots).
Go to sheets.new to create a new spreadsheet.
Enter your spreadsheet data. Be sure to include at least one date column.
Click Insert > Timeline.
Select the data range you want to include in your Gantt chart.
Click OK.
Now for the details. I'm using the template linked above, but the steps will work the same using your own spreadsheet.
Go to sheets.new to create a new spreadsheet.
Enter your spreadsheet data, making sure to include at least one date column.
Click Insert, and then select Timeline.
Select the data range you want to create the timeline from. I recommend including your entire data set so you have more to work with in the settings. Either way, remember to include at least the date columns.
Click OK.
Google Sheets will automatically add a new tab to your spreadsheet with your selected data transformed into a horizontal timeline. This is your Gantt chart.
To me, the result looks as though you're cutting together your spreadsheet in Final Cut Pro at 3 a.m. for the third day in a row and the director has stopped returning your calls and you've just eaten an entire family-size bag of Swedish Fish and the last scene in this project that's due tomorrow just isn't coming together aaaaAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. Sorry, just flashed back to film school for a second there.
The point is: now you're viewing the spreadsheet in relation to time rather than row number. Each item you see plotted along the timeline view is called a card, and they're organized from left to right based on the earliest date (from your date column) in your chosen data range.
A Gantt chart in Google Sheets makes it easy to see at a glance if—as is the case in this example—you have a lot going on during one period and not a lot during another. But you can get even more granular.
How to adjust the settings for your Google Sheets Gantt chart
Google Sheets does a good job of transforming your data into a visually-pleasing Gantt chart. But if you want to change things up, you can.
With your Google Sheets Gantt chart open, click Settings in the ribbon. From there, you can tweak your Gantt chart based on a few things.
Duration. If your spreadsheet includes a start and end date (like in the template), Google Sheets should automatically detect that and stretch each card out accordingly. But if you want Google Sheets to stretch the cards based on a different column—for example, another date, a duration in days, or a time frame in hh:mm:ss format—you can do that.
Card details. You can change the details that are immediately visible for each card along your timeline view. Click Card title to choose a different column's data as the card heading. Click Card color to change the color. And click Card detail to display additional information (one value only) next to your title.
Card group. Google Sheets automatically plots each row of data in your selected data range along the timeline. But you can group your Gantt chart based on specific columns. For example, if you want to see who's in charge of each initiative, group your cards by the Assigned to column.
View. To change your view, click the View timeline by dropdown in the ribbon. Choose your view: Days, Weeks, Months, Quarters, Years, or Multiyear. You can also click Today to see only what's up for the day.
Conditional formatting. Cards can be colored using conditional formatting from the original sheet (or, in the case of the template, the color of the dropdowns). This way, you can do things like turn a card red if it has unfinished related tasks or green if it's been finished successfully. Note: only the background color changes, while the font color stays black, so stick to lighter colors to retain legibility.
Benefits of using a Google Sheets Gantt chart
The target market here seems to be project managers, and if you're a PM reading this right now, there's a good chance you already have strong opinions about this feature. But beyond project management, I do think there are a lot of interesting benefits of using a Google Sheets Gantt chart.
To-do lists. Non-controversial opinion: Deb at Zapier was right, and you should be using Google Sheets as a to-do list. Adding a timeline view can not only help you see what needs to get done now; it might give you a better look at what you've already done (and not enough to-do lists celebrate past success, IMO).
Dashboards. If you're not a project manager, reading a spreadsheet filled with due dates probably isn't something you're used to (or enjoy). This quick solution provides a visual way to track where things have been, where they're at now, and where they're going next.
Visualization of time. I'm enamored with spreadsheets made for purely personal use, like Maxwell Neely-Cohen's spreadsheet of songs stuck inside his head when he wakes up in the morning. This feature makes me imagine spreadsheets filled with small journal entries, Butterfly Effect-style, visualized on a cascading and shifting timeline as life goes on.
Limitations of using a Google Sheets Gantt chart
A Google Sheets Gantt chart will do the trick if you want a timeline view of a simple project. But if you're using it to manage a more complex project, the timeline view will quickly begin to show its limits. Here are a few other limitations of using a Google Sheets Gantt chart.
Missing some standard Gantt chart elements. Timeline cards in Google Sheets don't offer all of the important elements you'd find in a traditional Gantt chart, such as dependencies and milestones. For that, you're better off using another app that pushes the Gantt chart as a primary feature—like ClickUp or Asana.
Scalability. If you're working on a complex project, managing a Gantt chart in Google Sheets is cumbersome. For example, if one task timeline changes, you'll need to manually update the timelines for dependent tasks. Dedicated project management tools, on the other hand, can typically dynamically update this information.
Inaccessible. Timeline cards aren't overly accessible or customizable, meaning that users who rely on screen readers or vertical organization may continue to prefer the default spreadsheet view.
Why use a Gantt chart in Google Sheets instead of another app?
The big draw here is that Google Sheets already integrates with everything—including Zapier—making it easy to pull in data from existing spreadsheets or other apps and jump straight into a usable timeline. If you don't have that data in Google Sheets yet, here are a few common workflows to get you started.
Save new Gmail emails matching certain traits to a Google Spreadsheet
Add new Facebook Lead Ads leads to rows on Google Sheets
Send emails via Gmail when Google Sheets rows are updated
Generate rows in Google Sheets for new Unbounce submissions
Of course, plenty of other apps integrate with Zapier, and a lot of them—especially project management apps—have built-in Gantt chart views.
So it's also important to remember that Google Sheets has something like 500 functions now, and the ability to create your own functions with Google Apps Scripts. That means that you can make all of the data going into the cards fully dynamic, such as using the NOW() function to stretch a card from its start date to the current time, or using DAYS() to see how close you are to a due date and change a card's priority accordingly. This tutorial just covered the basics, but there's a lot more you can do here.
Lastly, there's a good chance that you or your team is already using Google products. Even though it's "just a Gantt chart," it's a Gantt chart in a product you already have access to, which isn't nothing. If you've ever had to walk a teammate through a new app's features, or make sure that your boss remembers their password for something they haven't touched in months, the relief of knowing that everything is in one place is almost palpable.
We have to go back, Marty! Back … to the spreadsheet!
Will Gantt charts revolutionize the way you work? Maybe not. But they're a good reminder that a spreadsheet is often more than it appears to be on the surface. When done well—meaning with clear intention, rigorous testing, and descriptive values—they can be a vision of the past, present, or future that we want to build for ourselves and others.
Making a spreadsheet isn't just lumping numbers into a grid. It's a way to tell a story, whether that's about your business, your profits, your projects, or your dreams. And even if a Gantt chart in Google Sheets is just another canvas for telling that story, I'll take all the canvases I can get.
Related reading:
This article was originally published in December 2022. The most recent update, with contributions from Deb Tennen and Jessica Lau, was in December 2024.
