Timeline

Timeline is a live view of how your work fits together that helps you start projects on the right foot and hit your deadlines. With Timeline, you can create a project plan showing how all of your project's pieces fit together. You can share plans to get buy-in and give everyone confidence that your team will deliver on time, adapt your plan as problems arise, and keep your project on track.

Viewing your project on a timeline

You can view any project that you have in Asana in timeline View.

Subtasks do not automatically inherit the project or assignee from their parent tasks. You need to manually add a subtask to a project and add a due date/date range for it to appear in the project’s timeline.

You can also hide your unscheduled tasks bar by clicking the Unscheduled toggle icon on your project toolbar.

Scheduling tasks on your timeline

To move tasks from Unscheduled Tasks and onto your timeline, you can drag the task from the unscheduled bucket onto the correct dates on your timeline or click back into your list or board view and add a due date or date range to that task. Once the task has a due date, it will appear on your timeline.

Rescheduling tasks in bulk

You may need to reschedule planned tasks in bulk to align with the parent task dates or bumps in the project.

How to push out mass dates:

You can do this in Timeline View.

You can multi-select tasks, then drag them across to where you see a more realistic date on your timeline.

Once you've clicked into Timeline - (but not on the actual task), hold the command button on your keyboard, then drag the blue rectangle that appears around the task you want to move simultaneously. A notification will appear telling you this task has been rescheduled.

Multiselect and bulk move

• Click the first task in your selection
• Hold the command key on your keyboard
• Multiselect other tasks and move when the rectangle is blue
• Drag to the new time frame
• All the other tasks should appear with dates adjusted accordingly

You can shift multiple due dates in a list by changing the View to Sort by Due Date, multi-selecting the tasks you want to change, or press and hold command (Ctrl on a PC) then use the up and down arrows to adjust all the due dates one day at a time.

Create a new task on your timeline

To create a new task from your timeline, you can click directly on your timeline on the date you’d like to schedule the task and type in the name of your task. You can then click into the task's details to add additional information and assign it to the appropriate person, and the task will appear directly on your timeline as well as in your list or board view.

Setting colors on your timeline

The best way to set colors on Timeline is to create custom fields and set colors for each field. Then, when you set a custom field value on tasks, that color can be viewed on your timeline.

You can choose Asana Default, which pulls from other colors you have set in Asana, or you can set your color logic based on custom fields. Once you’ve chosen which custom field you'd like to use, you can save that view for everyone, so your entire team will see the same color logic when they view the project in timeline.

Dependencies on your timeline

You can set dependencies directly on your timeline by clicking the connector icon that appears when hovering over a task and then dragging it to another task.

If the tasks in your project are dependent on others, they will show as connected on your timeline.

Zooming on your timeline

Sharing your timeline

Anyone with access to your project will have access to the project’s timeline. If you’d like to share a timeline with someone in your company, you can send them the link to your project’s timeline if the project is public by copying the URL. Alternatively, add them as a follower to tasks in your project if the project is private.

Critical path on timeline

This feature is available to all Business and Enterprise customers.

With critical path, you can quickly identify which tasks are crucial for the completion of your project and visualize them on your timeline view. Critical path will allow you to take note of roadblocks and manage your project’s timeline while providing you with a complete view of your project.

Calculating your project’s critical path

Your project’s critical path is the longest chain of dependent tasks that need to be completed for your project to be finished. However, subtasks are not included when calculating your critical path.

Calculating how long it will take you to complete your project is done through task duration and dependencies between these tasks, including any time gaps.

For example:

• Task B is dependent on Task A
• Task A’s date range is December 1 to December 5
• Task B’s date range is December 10 to December 20

The total time for this path would be 20 days.

To determine your project’s critical path, your project needs:

• Tasks with a due date to detect task duration
• Task dependencies
• The last due task in your project must be dependent on other tasks

Your critical path will vary depending on changes in dependencies and due dates.

Note: Critical path is available to projects with a maximum of 100 tasks with due dates.

Highlighting your critical path

To visualize your project’s critical path on your timeline view, click on the Timeline tab.

Sections on your timeline

Sections add a new level of categorization to your project plan. You can now view your work your way, share a plan with more visual indicators of task types, and adapt your plan while knowing how tasks are grouped. We've added the ability to view your timeline sections or sort by date.

To add, remove, or reorder sections in your timeline, you need to do so from the list or board view. Once you’ve made changes, your timeline view will automatically update.

Sorting on your timeline

You can also sort your tasks on your timeline by either start date or due date or assignee and then save that as your default view.

Once you sort your tasks on your timeline by start date, due date, or assignee, the project sections will disappear. To navigate back to your sections, sort by None.

Subtask count on Timeline

You can also view the number of subtasks on a particular task directly from your timeline.

Filtering on Timeline

Using your project toolbar, you can filter your timeline according to your desired preferences.

Portfolio Timeline

Portfolio Timeline is available for all Business and Enterprise customers.

Portfolio Timeline allows you to visualize, share, and adjust how initiatives are sequenced so you can best utilize your resources and hit your deadlines.

Find out more about Portfolio Timeline in the guide article here.