How to Create a Learning Tracker in Google Sheets

A learning tracker is one of the most powerful tools you can use to hold yourself accountable and visualize progress toward a new skill. Forget overly complicated apps or pen-and-paper logs, you can build a flexible, automated tracker right inside Google Sheets. This guide will walk you through creating a simple yet effective learning tracker from scratch, complete with automated progress calculations and visual charts.

Why Use Google Sheets for a Learning Tracker?

Before building, it’s worth asking: why Google Sheets? The answer comes down to three things: flexibility, accessibility, and cost. Unlike rigid tracking apps, a spreadsheet is a blank canvas. You can customize it perfectly to your learning style, whether you're tackling a coding bootcamp, a new language, or a series of marketing courses.

It’s also completely free and accessible from any device. You aren't locked into one ecosystem or paying for features you don’t need. You get the power to organize, automate, and visualize your journey in a way that truly works for you.

Step 1: Building a Strong Foundation (The Basic Table)

Every good tracker starts with a solid structure. The goal is to create a clear, organized table that captures all the essential information about your learning path without becoming cluttered.

Open a new Google Sheet and create the following headers in the first row:

Module/Topic: This is the name of the lesson, chapter, or skill you are learning. (e.g., "Lesson 1: Introduction to SEO," "Chapter 3: Verb Conjugations").
Resource Link: A direct link to the course video, article, or resource. This is a huge time-saver, turning your tracker into a learning hub.
Status: A simple tag to mark your progress on each item. We'll automate this with a dropdown menu shortly.
Progress (%): If a single module has multiple steps, you can use this to track how far along you are. For simplicity, we'll start by focusing on the overall status first.
Target Date: Your deadline for completing the module. Setting targets keeps you on track.
Completed Date: The date you actually finished the module. This helps you compare your estimates with reality.
Notes: A catch-all column for key takeaways, difficult concepts, or ideas to revisit.

Your sheet should now look like a clean, simple table. Go ahead and populate it with the first few modules or topics of the skill you want to learn. Don't worry about filling everything out perfectly yet, just get the outline in place.

Step 2: Adding Automation with Dropdowns and Formulas

This is where your static table becomes a dynamic tool. Manually typing "Completed" or "In Progress" a dozen times is inefficient and prone to typos. We can fix this with data validation and use formulas to calculate your overall progress automatically.

Create Status Dropdown Menus

Dropdowns ensure your status column is consistent, which is essential for our formulas to work correctly.

Click on the top of the Status column (Column C in our example) to select the entire column, except for the header cell (C2 down to C1000).
Go to the nav menu and click Data > Data validation.
A sidebar will appear. Under "Criteria," select List of items.
In the text box to the right, enter your statuses, separated by a comma: Not Started, In Progress, Completed.
Make sure "Show dropdown list in cell" is checked.
Click Done.

Now, when you click on any cell in the Status column, a clean dropdown menu will appear. This small change makes your tracker much cleaner and more professional.

Calculate Your Overall Progress Automatically

Seeing a progress percentage that updates in real-time is incredibly motivating. We can achieve this by using two simple functions: COUNTIF and COUNTA.

COUNTA counts the number of non-empty cells in a range. We'll use this to find the total number of modules in our tracker.
COUNTIF counts cells that meet a specific condition. We'll use this to find out how many modules have the status "Completed."

Find an empty cell at the top of your sheet (say, J2) and type a label like "Overall Progress." In the cell next to it (K2), enter the following formula:

=COUNTIF(C2:C, "Completed") / COUNTA(A2:A)

Let's break that down:

COUNTIF(C2:C, "Completed") scans the entire status column and counts how many times the word "Completed" appears.
COUNTA(A2:A) scans the module/topic column to get a count of the total number of learning modules you've listed.
By dividing them, we get a decimal representing your completion percentage.

To make it look nice, select the cell with the formula (K2), go to the menu, and click Format > Number > Percent. Now, every time you mark a module as "Completed" in your tracker, this percentage will update automatically.

Step 3: Visualizing Your Journey with Charts and Conditional Formatting

Numbers are great, but visuals are better for at-a-glance motivation. Let's add a donut chart to display your overall progress and use colors to bring your tracker to life.

Create a Progress Donut Chart

Donut charts are perfect for showing parts of a whole, like your "completed" vs. "remaining" modules.

First, we need to create a small table to feed the chart. Somewhere out of the way (e.g., in cells I5:J6), set up the following:

Cell I5: CompletedCell J5: =COUNTIF(C2:C, "Completed")

Cell I6: RemainingCell J6: =COUNTA(A2:A) - COUNTIF(C2:C, "Completed")

This little table dynamically calculates the number of completed and remaining modules. Now, let’s create the chart:

Select the data you just created (the four cells from I5 to J6).
Go to the menu and click Insert > Chart.
Google Sheets will probably default to a pie chart. In the Chart editor sidebar that appears, under "Chart type," select Donut chart.
Use the Customize tab in the editor to change the title, colors, and fonts to your liking. A good title would be "Learning Progress."

You can now drag this chart to the top of your sheet. It’s a powerful visual dashboard element that updates in real-time as you update your status dropdowns.

Use Conditional Formatting to Color-Code Your Rows

Conditional formatting lets you automatically change a cell's background color based on its content. This is a fantastic way to see the status of all your modules at a glance.

Select the entire range of your data, from the first module entry to the last column and row (e.g., A2:G100). Don't include the header row.
Go to the menu and click Format > Conditional formatting.
Under "Format rules," change the "Format cells if..." dropdown to Custom formula is.
In the value/formula box, enter: $C2="Completed"
Under "Formatting style," choose a light green background color.
Click Add another rule.
Repeat the process for "In Progress" with a yellow background, using the formula $C2="In Progress".

Why $C2? The $ locks the check to column C (our status column), but the 2 allows the rule to apply down each row individually. As you scroll through your tracker, you'll now get instant visual feedback on which items are done, in progress, or not yet started.

Best Practices for a Successful Tracker

You've built an excellent tool, but a tool is only as good as the person using it. Here are a few quick tips to make sure your tracker actually helps you learn:

Be Specific. Instead of having one module called "Learn Spanish," break it down into smaller, actionable pieces like "Master 10 Ser/Estar phrases," "Learn days of the week," etc. Smaller wins are more motivating.
Review It Daily. Take 60 seconds each day to open your tracker. Its presence alone is a powerful reminder of your goals. Update your statuses as you make progress.
Don't Be Afraid to Adapt. A tracker is a living document. If you find a certain column isn't helpful, hide it. If you want to track a new metric, add a new column. Tailor it to what motivates you.

Final Thoughts

Building this tracker took you from a blank sheet to a dynamic, visual learning dashboard. You've learned how to combine simple data entry with data validation, automated formulas, and engaging charts to create a tool that actively supports your goals.

While Google Sheets is fantastic for personal trackers like this, the friction of manually wrangling data across multiple professional platforms - like Google Analytics, Shopify, and your CRM - is a similar but much larger challenge. That's why we built Graphed . It automates the painful process of connecting your data sources, allowing you to build real-time dashboards and get answers using simple, plain English, no formulas required. This gives your entire team the power to transform their data into clear, actionable insights without the learning curve of typical business intelligence tools.