Pick a PhD, master's thesis or research proposal timeline, edit the tasks and the months, and download the Gantt chart as a PNG to paste into your proposal. Free, no sign-up, and nothing leaves your browser.
The same example the chart maker loads. Change any of it to fit your project.
| Task | When |
|---|---|
| Preparation | |
| Literature review | Months 1 to 3 |
| Develop the instrument or protocol | Months 2 to 4 |
| Ethics approval | Months 3 to 4 |
| Fieldwork | |
| Recruitment | Months 4 to 5 |
| Data collection | Months 5 to 8 |
| Milestone: Interim report | Month 6 |
| Analysis and reporting | |
| Analysis | Months 8 to 10 |
| Writing the report | Months 10 to 12 |
| Dissemination | Months 11 to 12 |
A three-year PhD in the UK and Europe style. A four-year US or Canadian PhD with coursework and a qualifying exam is also in the examples menu.
| Task | When |
|---|---|
| Foundations | |
| Literature review | Months 1 to 6 |
| Research questions and plan | Months 4 to 8 |
| Training and methods courses | Months 1 to 9 |
| Ethics approval | Months 6 to 8 |
| Milestone: Confirmation / upgrade review | Month 12 |
| Data and analysis | |
| Pilot study | Months 10 to 14 |
| Main data collection | Months 14 to 22 |
| Analysis | Months 19 to 28 |
| Paper 1: draft and submit | Months 21 to 26 |
| Milestone: Conference presentation | Month 24 |
| Writing up | |
| Paper 2 | Months 27 to 32 |
| Thesis chapters | Months 25 to 33 |
| Full draft and supervisor feedback | Months 32 to 34 |
| Revisions and formatting | Months 34 to 36 |
| Milestone: Submit thesis | Month 36 |
A Gantt chart is a timeline that shows each task of the project as a bar across the months it will take, so a reader can see the order of the work, what overlaps and when each milestone falls. Proposals use it as the work plan: it shows the project is realistic and that you have thought through the sequence.
List the phases of your PhD (literature review, methods and ethics, data collection, analysis, papers, thesis writing), give each task a start month and a length, add the milestones your programme requires such as a confirmation review or qualifying exam, and leave slack before every deadline. The chart maker above starts from an example and lets you change every number.
It depends on your field, your programme and your supervisor, so treat the examples as a starting point. Experimental and fieldwork projects usually need more time for data collection, and projects with ethics approval need to start that early because the wait is outside your control. Check the dates your programme sets for milestones and plan backwards from them.
Yes. The chart you make is yours: paste the PNG into your document. The small credit line under the chart is on by default and can be switched off with the checkbox.
Nothing is stored on a server. Use Copy link to get an address that opens with your chart in it, or download the CSV, which opens in Excel or Google Sheets, to keep the data.
Download the PNG and insert it as a picture in Word, PowerPoint or Google Docs. Download the SVG if you want a sharp vector image, and the CSV if you would rather build your own chart in Excel from the task list.