What's included
A lookahead is not a separate plan. It is a three-week slice of the master schedule with constraints attached, refreshed weekly. The template is organized that way:
- Week 1 — committed work — Work that is fully constraint-free and will be executed this week. Crews, materials and access are already confirmed. Milestone: pre-pour inspection.
- Week 2 — ready work — Work whose constraints have been cleared but which has not started. This is the buffer that keeps crews busy when week 1 slips.
- Week 3 — planned work — Work still being made ready. Anything here with an open constraint is the reason the meeting exists.
- Constraints & lead times — Submittals, approvals, deliveries and permits that must land before the work they gate. These run across all three weeks rather than sitting inside one.
- Inspections & hold points — Third-party sign-offs that stop work if missed — rebar, underground, structural. Each is a milestone, not a task.
- Weekly refresh — The chart rolls forward every Monday. Percent-complete goes in, the window moves one week, the constraint log is re-checked.
How to customize it
- Set the window to your own start Monday — the Lookahead view anchors to Monday and lets you pick anything from a 1 to 8 week window.
- Add a row per crew or subcontractor rather than per activity if your site is trade-led; the foremen need to see their own line.
- Keep the constraint items as real bars with real durations. A submittal shown as a zero-day note gets ignored.
- Mark every inspection as a milestone so nothing downstream is scheduled through a hold point.
- Roll the whole chart forward one week each Monday rather than rebuilding it — the master schedule is the source, the lookahead is the view.
Scheduling tips
- Generate it, do not retype it. If the lookahead is maintained separately from the master schedule, the two diverge within a month. Open the master in the editor and switch to View ▸ Lookahead to cut the window instead.
- Week 1 should contain no constraints. If it does, the work is not committed — it is aspirational, and it belongs in week 2.
- Track percent plan complete. Counting how many week-1 commitments actually finished is the single most useful number a lookahead produces.
- Put lead-time items on the chart months early. Steel, switchgear and elevators do not care about your three-week window; they need to appear in it at the point they arrive, and be ordered long before.
- Print it at the size the trailer wall needs. A lookahead nobody can read from three feet away does not change anyone's Monday.
Related templates
- Free Construction Gantt Chart Template
- Project Management Gantt Chart Template
- Bridge Construction Schedule Template
- Browse all Gantt chart templates
Frequently asked questions
What is a 3-week lookahead schedule?
A rolling short-interval plan that shows the next three weeks of work pulled from the master schedule, with constraints and inspections attached. It is refreshed every week, usually at the Monday coordination meeting. See our 3-week lookahead guide for how it fits with pull planning.
Can gantts.app generate a lookahead from my schedule?
Yes. Open your schedule in the free editor and choose View ▸ Lookahead. It anchors to Monday and lets you set a window of one to eight weeks, so the lookahead is always a view of the live schedule rather than a second copy of it.
Why three weeks and not four or six?
Three weeks is long enough to remove most constraints and short enough that the dates are still credible. Sites with long-lead trades often run six weeks; the Lookahead view supports up to eight, so use whatever your make-ready cycle needs.
What belongs in a lookahead that is not in the master schedule?
Constraints — submittals, RFIs, deliveries, permits, inspections and crew availability. The master schedule carries the work; the lookahead carries the reasons the work might not happen.
Is the 3-week lookahead template free?
Yes. Free Excel, PowerPoint and CSV downloads, and free online editing with no account and no watermark.