Taking Paul's 7 undisputed Letters as the primary resource, but not ignoring evidence from Acts, Paul’s career can be summarized in the following way:

• 34 or 35 A.D. - Paul's conversion near Damascus in about a.d. 34 or 35 (Gal 1:17; Act 9:1-22)
• 34-37 A.D. - Spent three years in Arabia (i.e., Nabatea; Gal 1:17)
• No doubt some of that time was spent in religious reflection, but probably Paul began to preach relatively soon. Unless he had been doing more than meditating, Paul would scarcely have had to flee from Damascus (2Co 11:32-33; Act 9:23-25).
• 37 A.D. - First visit to Jerusalem after his conversion occurred around 37.
• Although the account in Acts presents him as ‘preaching boldly’ (Act 9:29), Paul’s own testimony is that he saw only Cephas (Peter) and James (Gal 1:18-20; Act 9:26-29).
• 37 A.D. - After this fifteen-day visit to Jerusalem, Paul engaged in missionary activity in Syria and Cilicia (Gal 1:21-22; Act 9:30).
• 37 A.D. - Acts 13 and 14 describe a mission to Cyprus and central Asia Minor (Antioch of Pisidia, Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe). At Lystra, Paul is reported to have been stoned (Act 14:19), an incident confirmed by 2Co 11:25.
• 37-51 A.D. - During this fourteen-year period, Paul may have engaged in missionary work in north Galatia (founding the churches addressed in Galatian), Macedonia (Philippi and Thessalonica; see 1Th 1:2-3:10), and Achaia (Corinth).
• Acts, of course, places the missionary activity in these provinces after the Jerusalem conference (Act 16:11-18:21). Acts and the Letters agree that Paul was accompanied on this mission by Silvanus (Silas) and Timothy (1Th 1:1; 2Co 1:19).
• At Philippi, Paul is said to have been beaten with rods (Act 16:22), one of the three times he suffered this punishment (2Co 11:25).
• At Corinth (2Co 10:14), where he labored for a year and a half (Act 18:11), Paul probably wrote 1 Thessalonians—the earliest book in the NT. There he also appeared for trial before Gallio (Act 18:12-17), the newly appointed governor, whose accession to power can be dated at around 50 or 51. According to Paul’s strategy, the mission was begun in a large urban center, after which fellow workers were enlisted to help in spreading the gospel into the surrounding areas (2Co 1:1).
• 50 or 51 A.D. - The Jerusalem conference was probably convened in 50 or 51.
• According to both accounts (Gal 2:1-10; Act 15:1-21), the primary issue was the question of requiring circumcision for Gentile converts, i.e., requiring Gentiles to become Jews before they could become Christians. Both accounts agree, too, in regard to the decision: circumcision should not be required. According to Galatians, the leaders of the Jerusalem church (Peter, James, and John) approved Paul’s mission, but requested him to collect an offering for the poor of the Jerusalem congregation (1Co 16:1-4; 2Co 8-9; Rom 15:26).
• Some scholars believe Paul engaged in missionary work farther west (in Macedonia and Achaia) prior to the conference. For them, the fourteen years [approximately 37-51] of silence (Gal 1:21-2:1) were filled with activity.
• 51 A.D. - After the conference, Paul traveled to Antioch (see Act 15:30; 18:22).
• Cephas (Peter) arrived shortly thereafter (Gal 2:11). At first, Cephas ate with the Gentile members of the church. When emissaries from James, the leader of the Jerusalem church, came to Antioch, Cephas withdrew from table fellowship with the Gentiles. Apparently, the ‘circumcision party’ (Gal 2:12), asserting its power in Jerusalem, had insisted that Gentile Christians observe Jewish food laws (see Act 15:22-29; 21:25). Paul, upset by Cephas’s failure to recognize that the fellowship of the Lord’s table depended solely on faith, ‘opposed him to his face’ (Gal 2:11). [This also seems to have been the basis for his contention with and separation from Barnabas, who also followed Cephas in disassociating himself from the Gentiles, after which Paul traveled with Silas/Silvanus and Barnabas traveled with his cousin John Mark.]
• 52-54 A.D. - After the conference, Paul carried on an extensive mission in Ephesus (approximately a.d. 52-54).
• There Paul wrote most of his correspondence to the Corinthians (1 Corinthians & 2 Corinthians). An early letter mentioned in 1Co 5:9, 11 was probably lost. Paul wrote 1 Corinthians in response to problems in Corinth reported by Chloe’s people (1Co 1:11) and by a letter from the Corinthian church (1Co 7:1).
• Sometime between 52-54 A.D. - When relations between Paul and the Corinthians deteriorated, Paul seems to have made a quick visit from Ephesus to Corinth — a journey scholars call the ‘painful’ or ‘sorrowful’ visit (implied by 2Co 2:1; 12:14; 13:1). This visit aggravated the conflict, and provoked Paul to write the ‘severe’ or ‘tearful’ letter (2Co 2:2-4; 7:8), part of which may be preserved in what we now have as 2 Corinthians 10-13.
• Galatians also comes from this period, being written after the Jerusalem conference (Gal 2:1-10). In Galatia, as in Corinth, the church had been invaded by opponents who preached a ‘different gospel’ (Gal 1:6) and/or ‘another Jesus’ (2Co 11:4).
• 52-54 A.D. - During the Ephesian ministry (approximately a.d. 52-54) Paul was probably imprisoned (see 2Co 1:8-11).
• Although the account in Acts 19 mentions no prison, Paul says that he had suffered ‘far more imprisonments’ (2Co 11:23) at a time when Acts has reported only the imprisonment at Philippi (16:23-39). During this probable Ephesian imprisonment, Paul seems to have written Philippians and Philemon (Phi 1:7, 13, 14, 17; Phm 1, 9, 10, 13). Imprisonment in Ephesus (rather than Caesarea or Rome) would help explain how the extensive exchange of information between Paul’s prison and the church at Philippi (Phi 2:25-30; 4:18) was possible. It would also make more feasible Paul’s plan to visit the Philippians after his release (Phi 1:26; 2:24). Similarly, a runaway slave from Colossae (Onesimus) would much more likely have met Paul in Ephesus than in the more distant Caesarea or Rome, and Paul’s plan to visit the owner of the slave (Phm 22) is more plausible if Paul is imprisoned in nearby Ephesus. If Colossians is an authentic Letter of Paul, it too would have been written from the Ephesian imprisonment (see Col 4:3, 10), since the situation from which it was written is closely related to that of Philemon (see Col 4:10-17; Phm 2, 23-24).
• 54 A.D. - After leaving Ephesus, Paul moved on to Troas, and eventually to Macedonia (2Co 2:12-13).
• There he met Titus, who brought him good news from Corinth (2Co 7:5-7). In response, Paul apparently wrote 2 Corinthians 1-9, the ‘reconciliation letter.’
• 55 or 56 A.D. - He then left Macedonia for Corinth where he spent three months (probably the winter of 55 or 56; see Act 20:2-3) and wrote Romans [including his letter to the church in Rome (Romans 1-15) and his introduction letter for Phoebe to the church in Ephesus (Roman 16). For further details, see http://www.bibletexts.com/terms/women01.htm.].
• 55 or 56 A.D. - From Corinth, Paul departed for Jerusalem with the offering, anticipating trouble from the Jews and Jewish Christians (Rom 15:31).
• 55 or 56 A.D. - Biographical information from the Letters ceases at this point. Acts, however, describes in detail Paul’s final trip to Jerusalem (Act 20:3-21:16), his imprisonment (Act 21:27-23:30), his transfer to Caesarea (Act 23:31-26:32), and his voyage to Rome (Act 27:1-28:31).
• Those who accept the pastoral Epistles (1 and 2 Timothy, Titus) as genuine believe Paul was released from his first imprisonment in Rome (2Ti 4:16-17) and made another journey in the East. During this hypothetical journey, he is supposed to have visited such places as Troas (2Ti 4:13), Ephesus (1Ti 1:3), Miletus (2Ti 4:20), and Crete (Titus 1:5). According to 2Ti 4:6-8, Paul is back in prison, anticipating martyrdom. This reconstruction, built on data which the pastorals have derived from the authentic Letters, is unconvincing.
• 62 (or as late as 67) A.D. - Although a tradition suggests that Paul had been released from Rome and visited Spain (1 Clement 5:7), this tradition probably rests on Rom 15:24, 28. More likely, Paul was executed at the end of his original Roman imprisonment, probably in a.d. 62 [or as late as 67 A.D.].