Notion Timeline View: Set Up a Gantt Chart From Your Project Dates

A Notion timeline is a database view that draws each page as a bar from its start date to its end date, so you see how long work runs and what overlaps. Add it with + next to a view name → Timeline, then pick the dates under Layout → Show timeline by. I'd give a project database one date range property, such as Work period, and plot by it: that one property also feeds a calendar, Notion Calendar and a duration formula.

If you searched for a Notion Gantt chart, this is the view. Notion's list of database layouts has no separate Gantt option. Its guide to choosing a database view describes the timeline as "A Gantt chart where you can see project scopes." For one person planning the work, keep the single range; when the start and the deadline come from different people, use separate Start and End properties. The view draws the bars, moves them and connects dependent tasks. Deciding which dates are real commitments to a client stays with you.

Add a timeline view in three ways

Notion's timeline help gives three routes, depending on where your projects live now:

1. A database you already keep: click + next to the name of the database or of its current view, then select Timeline.
2. A new full-page timeline: create a new page, then under Get started with click ••• → Timeline.
3. An inline timeline on a page you already have: type /Timeline view and press Enter.

For client projects I'd use the first route every time. The timeline is another view of the same records, so nothing is copied. Notion's views help adds that each database view has its own settings, so a filter or sort you add here leaves your table alone.

If you're still deciding between layouts, choosing a database view by the question it answers covers when a timeline beats a calendar or a table. When the question is which stage each task has reached rather than when it happens, a board grouped by Status answers it faster, and my Notion kanban board guide builds that view.

One date range or separate Start and End properties?

The date setup decides whether the timeline works at all. The timeline help is blunt about it: "Timelines only work if you have at least one date property in your database containing a range of dates. Otherwise nothing will be plotted." You can hold that range in two ways, and both are chosen in the same place: the settings menu at the top right of the database → Layout → Show timeline by.

• One date property holding a range. Open the date on a page and add an End date, as Notion's timeline planning guide describes. Then pick that property in Show timeline by.
• Separate Start and End properties. Keep two date properties and turn on the option for separate start and end dates in Show timeline by. The help says you can have start and end dates as separate properties or keep the range in one date property, and switch between them in that menu.

The drag row comes from William Nutt's timeline fundamentals on notion.vip: moving or extending a bar "will update the value of its associated Date properties." Notion's calendar help gives a database with several date properties a separate calendar for each, chosen with Show calendar by. The Notion Calendar help asks you to select a primary property when a database has more than one date property.

When separate properties win

I'd switch to separate properties in two cases. The first is dates that belong to different people or steps: a start you set when the work is scheduled and a due date the client gave you. Separate properties let a calendar show the due dates alone, with Show calendar by set to End. A drag on the timeline still rewrites both values, so check the deadline before you move a bar.

The second case is a database that already holds both dates. That was the situation in an r/Notion thread about a project timeline that wouldn't show dates properly. The first reply's fix was to turn on separate start and end dates and tell the timeline which property is the start and which is the end.

For plans that run by the hour, the planning guide adds: "You can even toggle on Include time within a date to get more granular." A database can also hold several ranges at once, such as project work and launch prep in Notion's own example, and Show timeline by switches which one the bars follow.

Create, move and stretch the bars

• Create an item: click inside the timeline to place a bar, then stretch it to the right length, as notion.vip describes. You can also add rows in the side table and give them dates there.
• Move it: drag the whole bar. Notion's views guide puts it simply: "To extend the length of a project or move it all together, just use drag-and-drop."
• Change its length: hover over the left or right edge, and the cursor shows that the edge can be dragged. Date indicators appear while you drag.
• Change its row: click and drag the item up or down.
• Find an item outside the view: small arrows on a row mean its bar sits before or after the dates on screen. Click the arrow to jump to it.
• Come back: click Today on the right side of the timeline.

notion.vip recommends keeping a Table view for easy editing, and I agree for any date you've promised a client. A drag is quick for rough planning; a typed date is exact. Plan by dragging, then check the committed dates in the side table.

Make a busy timeline readable

Show the side table with two or three properties

Click >> or << on the left to show or hide the table next to the bars. Choose its columns in the settings menu → Layout → Table properties. Choose what appears in the timeline itself in the settings menu → Property visibility.

I'd show Owner and Status in the table and keep the bars to the name, because overlap is the thing you came to see and labels on every bar crowd it out. The table always keeps the Name column. Notion's help says you can't remove it, though you can rename it, for example to Task.

Pick a timeframe and sort by start date

The timeframe dropdown sits on the right side of the timeline, to the left of Today, and covers any scale "from hours all the way up to years." Match the scale to the length of the work, so the longest bar you care about still fits on screen. Then add a sort on the start date. notion.vip notes that "Sorting by the starting Date property will nicely display items chronologically," which puts the earliest work at the top.

Group by Owner to see each person's load

Notion's intro to timeline view says you can group entries by one of their properties. The views help documents the setting: open the settings menu, select Group under View settings and choose the property. Group a task timeline by Owner and each person gets a band of their own bars, so overlapping work shows up person by person. The views guide makes the same point about timelines: "You can see all the tasks that are active at any one time, meaning you can distribute them evenly and avoid overload."

That answers the poster in the r/Notion thread, who wanted one timeline for the project manager and one for each contractor's workload. I'd start with a single timeline grouped by Owner, since one view is easier to keep accurate than six. If each person needs a view of their own, add another timeline view and filter it to that person. Select Save for everyone when the filter is meant for the team; without it, the views help says, the filter applies only for you.

The grouped view shows how much overlaps. It doesn't know anyone's hours, so judging whether three parallel tasks are too much for one contractor is still your call.

Long databases, totals and color

If only part of a long database appears, raise the number in the settings menu → Layout → Load limit. The help frames it as a choice between seeing "10 project pages at a time, or many more." The side table also takes calculations: click a property in the table, hover over Calculate and pick one. Count empty on Work period tells you how many rows have no date at all and so can't be plotted.

Conditional color works on timelines too; the timeline help's FAQ says yes when asked about coloring the projects plotted on a timeline. Setting conditional color rules for each database view covers the rules themselves.

Add a Duration formula

A Duration column in the side table shows each bar's length as a number. With a range property, read its two ends with dateStart() and dateEnd() and put the end first:

dateBetween(dateEnd(prop("Work period")), dateStart(prop("Work period")), "days")

The order matters. Notion's formula syntax reference shows the same one-year range returning -365 with the start first and 365 with the end first. For a Work period of October 6 → October 17, the formula above returns 11.

If you count both the first and the last day, the answer is 12. When to add one to dateBetween explains which count fits your question. With separate properties, the formula reads them directly:

dateBetween(prop("End"), prop("Start"), "days")

The reference lists the other units: "years", "quarters", "months", "weeks", "hours" and "minutes".

Sub-items and dependencies on a timeline

Sub-items

To break a project bar into steps, turn on sub-items: open the settings menu at the top of the database, select More settings under Database settings, then Sub-items → Turn on sub-items. Notion's sub-items and dependencies help lists two display options for timeline views. Nested in toggle opens and closes the children under each parent, and Flattened list shows parents and sub-items as separate rows. A second dropdown decides how filters treat them: Parents only, Parents and sub-items, or Sub-items only.

I'd use Nested in toggle when you walk a client through the plan and Flattened list while you schedule the steps themselves, since every sub-item then has its own row. If a child seems to vanish, the Flattened list fix for missing sub-items walks through the same display setting.

Dependencies

Dependencies connect tasks in a line, and on a timeline they appear as arrows between bars. Notion's help and its guide to sub-tasks and dependencies describe the setup:

1. Open the settings menu at the top of the database, select More settings under Database settings, then Dependencies.
2. If no relation exists for it, Notion prompts you to create one; by default it's a self-relation called Dependencies. Select Create new relation.
3. Choose a date-shifting setting, decide whether shifted items should avoid weekends, and select Turn on dependencies.
4. Hover over a bar, then drag the arrow that appears on its right side to the task it connects to.

The guide says the connecting arrow "will appear only in a timeline view", while the link itself is stored in that relation property. The three shift settings are Shift only when dates overlap, Shift & maintain time between items and Do not automatically shift, with Avoid weekends as a separate toggle. If a dependent date didn't move, why Notion dependencies don't shift dates reads each mode literally and checks which dates the timeline displays.

I'd draw dependencies only where one task truly can't start until another ends, such as client approval before the build. Each link is one more date a shift setting may move without you. When you need task order without dates, paired Next and Previous self-relations are the lighter option. Neither feature needs an upgrade: Notion's pricing page lists "Databases including subtasks, dependencies, custom properties and more" on the Free plan.

Why the timeline is empty or an item is missing

Work down this table in order. The first two rows explain a timeline with no bars at all; the rest explain one item that's missing or wrong. Each fix comes from Notion's help or from the replies in the r/Notion thread above.

One check the table can't do for you is a row with a start date and no end. The help only promises bars for ranges, so I'd give every row an end date, even a provisional one, rather than rely on how a single date displays.

Where the timeline view stops

Notion's timeline help and guides document bars you drag, grouping, sub-items and dependencies that shift dates. They don't document a critical path, baselines that keep the original plan beside the current one, or a capacity chart that adds up hours per person. If a client project depends on those, a dedicated project tool fits better, and Notion vs Asana for small teams compares their timelines and dependencies.

For your own schedule, the database can go into Notion Calendar beside your meetings, and its help says you can edit database dates there. Two conditions apply: you need at least Can edit content access, and dates from Formula, Created time or Last edited time properties stay read-only.

To show a client the schedule, put a timeline filtered to their project on their portal page. What a Notion client portal should show covers which records a client can reach before you share it.

The setup I'd use, and the first step

The setup I'd recommend for a client project timeline: one Work period range on every task, a timeline plotted by it, the side table showing Owner and Status, and a sort on the start date. Add grouping by Owner when the question is workload, and dependencies only where one task truly waits on another. For one planner, keep everything on that range; when the start and the deadline come from different people, move to separate Start and End properties.

If you don't have a projects and tasks database yet, set up Notion project management with two related databases first.

First step: open your project database, add a Timeline view, set Show timeline by to your range property, and give every row that lacks an end date one.

Questions about Notion timelines

Can a timeline item open as a full page?

Yes. Notion's views help says Table, Board, List and Timeline layouts open pages in side peek by default. To change that, open the settings menu at the top of the database and select Layout → Open pages in → Full page.

Is there a Notion timeline template?

Notion's planning guide names three: Blogging manager, Project schedule and Develop & launch an app. Project schedule comes "complete with properties for deadlines and the duration of each step in your project." I'd still add a timeline to the database you already use, because a template brings its own database and you'd be moving every record into it.