Revolutionary Hack: Mastering Notification Management on Your Mac Like a Pro!
Notifications on Mac are an essential feature that helps keep you updated on events, tasks, and reminders. However, they can be overwhelming, and too many notifications can distract you from your work. Additionally, some notifications are plain annoying and can disrupt your workflow, causing you to lose focus. Luckily, there’s a solution to this problem - master notification management on your Mac like a pro!
Whether you’re new to Mac or a seasoned user, this article will show you how to take control of notifications and create an interruption-free work environment. We’ll explore some of the built-in features of macOS, as well as some third-party tools that can help you manage your notifications.
Step 1: Understanding Notification Settings
The first step to managing your notifications is understanding the notification settings within macOS. Head over to the ‘System Preferences’ and select ‘Notifications’. Here, you’ll see a list of applications that can send notifications, each with its respective settings.
You can choose whether you want an app to show notifications in the Notification Center, whether they can appear as banners, and whether they show on the lock screen. You can even customize the alert sound for each app.
Step 2: Prioritizing Notifications
Once you’ve reviewed the notification settings, take time to prioritize your notifications. Depending on your work, some notifications may be urgent, while others can wait. On your Notification Center, you can long-press on each group of notifications to reveal a set of controls for this group. Select ‘Options’ to configure the settings for this group of notifications.
Activating the ‘Deliver Quietly’ option will instantly bury notifications from this group to Notification Center without making any sound, voice over, or appearing on the lock screen. Activate ‘Hide’ on the app notification settings to prevent notifications from appearing in the Notification Center altogether, giving you more control over your work environment without the constant distractions.
Step 3: Use Do Not Disturb Mode
Do Not Disturb mode helps you eliminate interruptions, especially when you need to focus on your work. This mode stops notifications and alerts from appearing, allowing you to work undisturbed. To activate Do Not Disturb Mode, click on the Notification Center icon at the right-hand corner of your Mac, swipe down slightly to reveal the toggle for ‘Do not disturb’ or go to System Preferences » Notifications » Do Not Disturb. Scheduling Do Not Disturb is the best option if you don’t want to remember to turn it on and off manually. You can choose the timing or let macOS recognize your schedule and activate it automatically.
Step 4: Using Third-Party Notification Management Tools
Some apps can help you manage notifications better than the built-in macOS features. Here are some of the recommended tools:
TripMode - This app helps limit your data usage by blocking unnecessary notifications and background apps. You can specify which apps to block, reducing the clutter in your Notification Center.
HazeOver - This app provides a highlight effect on the window you’re using, while the rest of the windows fade in the background. It helps you focus only on what you’re working on and can be helpful when you have multiple windows open, minimizing distractions.
Bartender - This app puts status icons from third-party apps inside a drop-down menu to help minimize clutter on the menu bar, which can help reduce distractions.
Wrapping Up
Notifications on Mac can be helpful, but they can be disruptive when you’re trying to work. By following the four steps outlined above, you can manage your notifications like a pro and create an interruption-free work environment. Whether you use the built-in features of macOS or employ third-party tools, the key is prioritizing your notifications and taking control of your notifications.
Whether you are hard at work or just browsing the Web, macOS notifications can often feel like they are nothing but an interruption. The last thing you want is to watch a movie in full-screen mode on your Mac, only to be interrupted by news, phone or email alerts. Fortunately, Apple has enabled a few ways to better manage notifications on your Mac computer.
Knowing how to handle these notifications, especially for new Mac users, can be especially important for your computing experience. Here are some ways to better manage your notifications in macOS.
Viewing Notifications
Most notifications will appear on your Mac in the form of a small pop-up in the right corner of your screen. Typically, this is either a banner or an alert. The former will appear on the screen for a brief moment and then disappear. On the other hand, an alert will stay on screen until you take action. To view past notifications, look for the Notification Center icon at the top right of the screen. It looks like three bars stacked on top of each other with the middle being slightly shorter.
Snoozing Notifications
Some alerts, like those from the Reminders App, will allow an option for snoozing. Like the alarm clock on your nightstand, this alert will reappear on your desktop fifteen minutes later. The default timeframe is set by Apple, but you can change it.
Turn on Do Not Disturb
If you really want to put a stop to all notifications, if only for a while, activate “Do Not Disturb” mode. When enabled, this feature stops all notifications dead in their tracks. Fortunately, these notifications do not disappear entirely, as they are still visible in the Notification Center.
Hold down the Option key (or Alt key on an external keyboard), and click on the Notification Center icon. That’s the three lines at the very top right of your menu bar. When you do this, the icon will turn from black to gray, which means “Do Not Disturb” is active. It will remain active until midnight or until you manually turn it off by repeating the same steps.
Another method is to swipe right with two fingers on your MacBook trackpad or Magic Trackpad (version 1 or 2), which brings up the Notification Center. Once it appears on your screen, swipe down, again with two fingers. You will now see two toggle options: “Night Shift” and “Do Not Disturb.” Toggle DND on. The same midnight timeframe is active here as well or until you repeat the process and turn it back on.
Lastly, you can choose the more complicated of the three steps and set up a keyboard shortcut. To do this, head to “System Preferences” and click on the “Keyboard” icon, then the “Shortcuts” tab. In the column on the left, look for the option for “Mission Control” and select it. Now you can click on a checkbox that is next to “Show Notification Center,” and choose a key combination. Whatever combination you press will enable and disable the Notification Center until you remove or delete the shortcut.
But wait, there is one more option for Do Not Disturb that should not be forgotten. Did you know you can set up DND to activate automatically? To enable this, head to the Apple logo at the top left of your screen. Select “System Preferences,” and in the top row search for “Notifications.” In the screen that appears, there are a variety of options available including setting up automatic timing for DND, disabling it when the Mac is being mirrored to a TV and more.
Managing Notifications by App
If you don’t want to pause or set Do Not Disturb as active, you always have the option of adjusting notification settings on a per-app basis.
Head to System Preferences and click on Notifications in the top row. All of the apps that have the ability to send notifications are available to review. You can now go through each app and disable all notifications or choose if you want a banner or alert.
Finally, you can set up a number of customization options including playing a sound, showing notifications on the lock screen or showing the notification preview.
The Notification Center in macOS is fairly robust. For now, you can adjust, enable, disable and shut off notifications to your heart’s content. For the extreme, you can completely remove the Notification Center to eliminate all distraction. Together with Screen Time, you will have better productivity when working on your Mac.
Do you use notifications on your Mac? What are your favorite settings?
David is a freelance tech writer with over 15 years of experience in the tech industry. He loves all things Nintendo.
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