How to use Do Not Disturb on Mac

Do you want to create a more distraction-free environment on your computer? Read on for how to use Do Not Disturb on Mac.

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Do Not Disturb is a popular way to reduce distractions on iPhone and iPad and macOS features the same software to stay focused on your priorities. We’ll look at how to toggle the feature on and off as well as how to set up a schedule for the feature to automatically turn on every day.

Here’s how Do Not Disturb works on Mac via Apple’s support document:

You don’t see or hear notifications as they arrive, but they’re collected in Notification Center, where you can view them later.

How to use Do Not Disturb on Mac

Temporarily:

1. Hold the option key and click the Notifications center icon (three lines) in the top right corner of your Mac
2. When Do Not Disturb is turned on, the Notifications center icon will be grayed out
3. You can also open the Notifications center, and slide down on the trackpad to see the toggle for Do Not Disturb and Night Shift

Notification icon with Do Not Disturb off in the left image, Notification icon with Do Not Disturb turned on in the right image

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In addition to clicking the Notifications center icon you can slide two fingers from the far right side (slightly off usually works best) of your trackpad to the left to pull it up.

Set a Do Not Disturb schedule:

1. Open System Preferences and click Notifications 
2. With the Do Not Disturb tab selected on the left sidebar you can set a schedule

Here’s how the process looks:

In addition to setting a schedule, you can have your Mac automatically turn on DND when using projectors and mirroring to TVs.

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As shown above, you can also customize how you want your Mac to handle phone calls when using DND.

For more help getting the most out of your Apple devices, check out our how to guide as well as the following articles:

• How to use password AutoFill on Mac
• How to use password AutoFill on iPhone and iPad
• How to use a custom alphanumeric passcode on iPhone and iPad
• Where is the power button on new MacBooks?
• Where is the power button on iPad Pro?
• Here’s how to cancel your Apple News+ trial and avoid a $10 charge
• How to check what apps have read and write access to iPhone photos
• How to change your Instagram password on iPhone