Timeline view

Timelines show the progress of your project over time so you can make sure things are happening when they should.

Here's how to to add a timeline to Notion:

1. Create a new page in your workspace.

2. Under Get started with, click the ••• and then Timeline.

If you want to create an inline timeline, type /Timeline view on any page and press enter.

Add a timeline to an existing database to view its data in that format. More on views here →

1. Click + at the top left of your database.

2. Select Board from the dropdown menu.

Edit your timeline so it does the job you need it to do. There are several ways to change the appearance of your timeline and the projects you plot on it however is most helpful to you.

You can view your projects on any time scale, from hours all the way up to years.

1. On the right side of your timeline, to the left of < Today >, you'll see a dropdown menu with a unit of time.

   • Your timeline will automatically adjust to show your current projects rendered on the new time scale.

1. Hover over the left or right edge of any project. Your cursor will indicate that you can drag and drop each edge to make it as long or short as you want it to be.

   • You'll see date indicators appear to guide you.

At any time, you can jump to the current day on your timeline. Just click < Today > on the right side underneath the top level menu.

In Notion, you can show a table to the left of your timeline so you can always see a full list of your projects no matter when they are scheduled.

To show or hide table in any timeline, click the >> or << on the left.

Depending on how many projects you have in a timeline, and what you're using the timeline for, you may want to only see 10 project pages at a time, or many more. To set your preference:

1. Click ••• at the top of your database.

2. Select Load limit and select a number of pages.

Timelines give you a few ways to display properties at a glance so you can see information about your projects right away.

• Click ••• at the top right of your timeline and then Properties.

• You will see all your properties in this menu displayed next to a toggle. To show properties directly on your project cards in your timeline, toggle them on. To hide them, toggle them off.

• When showing a table in your timeline, you'll also have the option to display properties as frozen columns to the left. You can toggle these on and off in the Properties menu, too, but only if you have Show table switched on.

• You can also hide properties displayed in this table portion of your timeline by clicking on your column headers and choosing Hide from the menu.

Switch how projects and properties are ordered in your timeline with drag-and-drop:

• When not showing table, click and hold any project page plotted on your timeline, then drag it up or down.

  • When showing table, hover over any row, then click and hold the ⋮⋮ icon on the left to drag it up or down

• You can also re-order columns when showing table. Click and hold their headings to drag them left or right (like below).

  • Resize columns by hovering over their edges, and dragging right or left.

If you have multiple date properties in your database, you can plot your projects on your timeline using any of them. And it's easy to switch between them.

For example, you might have one date property for project work and another for the time needed to prep launch. To show the one that you want:

1. Click ••• at the top right of your timeline and then Layout.

2. Click Show timeline by.

3. Choose which date property you want your timeline to show.

   • You can choose to have start and end dates as separate properties that dictate how your projects or plotted. You can turn that on in this menu. Or you can have the date range you want to plot exist in the same date property.

When showing a table, you can run calculations that will show you information about the data contained in each column at the bottom of your timeline.

Hover below the last row in your table, then click the word Calculate that appears under any column you want to learn more about:

• You'll see a dropdown menu containing these calculation options:

  • Count all: Gives you the total number of rows in the column.

  • Count empty: Counts the number of rows that do not have a value in the column.

  • Count not empty: Counts the number of rows where the column is filled. 

  • Count values: Counts the number of property values contained in the column. 

  • Count unique values: Counts the number of unique property values contained in the column, omitting duplicates. 

  • Percent empty: Gives you the percentage of rows that do not have the chosen property filled in. 

  • Percent not empty: Gives you the percentage of cards that do have the property filled in. 

  • Earliest date: If you have time-related properties in your table like Last edited or Created time, you can choose to show when the oldest row was edited or created.

  • Latest date: Shows when the newest row was last edited or created.

  • Date range: Shows you the time gap between the oldest and newest edit or creation time.

• If you have a Number property in your table, you unlock several other calculation options:

  • Sum: Shows the sum of the numbers in the column.

  • Average: Shows the average of the numbers in the column.

  • Median: Shows the median of the numbers in the column.

  • Min: Shows the lowest number in the column.

  • Max: Shows the highest number in the column.

  • Range: Subtracts the lowest number from the highest.