Do Not Disturb prevents your Mac from inundating you with constant notifications when you'd rather stay focused on the task at hand. It's easy to switch on, and you can customize Do Not Disturb to turn on and off on a schedule or under specific circumstances. You can even choose when Do Not Disturb lets call notifications through.
Here's how to use and customize Do Not Disturb on your Mac.
How to activate Do Not Disturb on your Mac
- Click the Notification Center icon in the upper-right corner of the Menu bar, or swipe to the left with two fingers from the right edge of your Mac's trackpad.
Scroll to the top of the Notification Center.
Click the Do Not Disturb switch to the On position.
Instead of doing any of this, you can hold down the Option key on your keyboard and click on the Notification Center icon to turn Do Not Disturb on or off.
How to customize Do Not Disturb on your Mac
- Open System Preferences from your Mac's Dock or Applications folder.
Click Notifications.
- Click the checkbox next to From: [time] to: [time].
Click the arrows next to the From: and to: fields to select the time range to which you'd like Do Not Disturb to be on.
- Click the checkbox for When the display is sleeping if you'd like Do Not Disturb to automatically turn on when your Mac's display goes to sleep.
Click the checkbox for When mirroring to TVs and projectors if you'd like to prevent notifications from showing up on your Mac while projecting your Mac's screen to a TV or projector (this does not include external monitors).
- Click the checkbox for Allow calls from everyone if you still want call notifications while Do Not Disturb is on.
Click the checkbox for Allow repeated calls if you want second calls from the same number within three minutes to still get through.
Questions?
If you've got any questions about using Do Not Disturb on your Mac, let us know in the comments.
Updated June 2018: Consolidated many of the sections into the Customize portion of the article.
