Define your goals

The first step in constructing a timeline is to come to an agreement on what you’re working towards. What defines the “end state” of your project? What impact do you want your project to have? What is the quality of work you can feasibly expect to produce? 

Here’s an example of a goal:

• Create an interactive storymap to showcase our organization’s work partnering with multiple community networks. 

Come to an agreement with your team on shared goals for your project before moving on.

Define Objectives

Next, ask yourself what you’ll have to have produced at the end of your project to achieve your stated goals. Objectives should break down large goals into concrete, actionable categories. 

Objectives following the above example of a goal could be as follows:

1. Conduct video interviews with all of [Organization’s] community network leaders 

2. Design an aesthetically pleasing StoryMap to host the information gathered in interviews

3. Promote our organization and StoryMap through a series of 10 social media posts on Instagram and Facebook

Define Deliverables

After splitting your goal up into more manageable objectives, begin to think of tasks that need to get done to achieve each objective. These tasks should each have an attached deliverable, or specific output that can be tracked. During this stage, start thinking about how long each deliverable will take you to produce. The better you think ahead, the more accurately you will be able to assess the time you need to complete your project.

For example, take Objective #1 above. To achieve this objective, you might need to rent equipment, schedule interviews, come up with interview questions, conduct each interview, transcribe each interview, etc. Scheduling time out for each of these components means none of them will get lost.

Translate Goals, Objectives, and Deliverables Into a Timeline

Finally, you can put your goals, objectives, and deliverables into a timeline format. Dividing tasks up this way gives you multiple options for timeline organization. 

Option 1: Divide by Objective

• Your timeline is divided by objectives. Each objective has its own independent timeline towards completion.
• This option is better suited towards teams with clear and distinct team member roles, where progress can be made towards multiple objectives at once. Progress on different objectives will still likely be staggered. 

Option 2: Divide by Project Phase

• Your timeline is divided into chunks or phases of time, with your objectives guiding the tasks that will be completed in each phase. 
• This option is more straightforward and better suited to teams that will work simultaneously on the same tasks. 

Dividing up the Work

Now that your timeline’s been laid out, determine how you will make progress towards each deliverable. 

• A progress spreadsheet, or similar project management tool, might be helpful in monitoring your progress. 
• Assign each deliverable to a person on your team. Don’t let any deliverables slip by without someone assigned to complete them.

Revisiting and revising your timeline

During team and partner meetings, keep your timeline on hand and regularly check in on progress. Try to keep your action items consistent with your timeline. 

If you notice that your action items and next steps are taking you off-schedule, choose whether to reorient your team/partner back to the timeline or revise the timeline.