How to cut Mac notifications down to the ones that matter

To cut notifications down on a Mac, open System Settings > Notifications and go through the list of apps one at a time. For each app, decide whether it should interrupt you at all. Many apps can be switched off completely, or left to drop quietly into Notification Center with no banner. Keep banners for the few that need you soon, and alerts, which stay on screen, for almost nothing. Then turn off badges and sounds for everything that doesn't truly need them.

It takes a quarter of an hour or so the first time, and it is one of the simplest ways to make a working day feel calmer. This post covers how to decide which apps earn a place, where each setting lives, and how to keep the list short once you've trimmed it.

Start with a one-day audit

Before you change anything, spend a normal workday noticing what interrupts you. Keep a note open, or a piece of paper by the keyboard, and make a mark next to an app's name every time it shows a banner, plays a sound or makes you look at a red badge.

At the end of the day, look at the tally and ask two questions about each app:

1. Did I need to know right away? A message from your manager about a meeting in ten minutes, probably yes. A comment on a document you'll open tomorrow, no.
2. Did I need to know at all? Many notifications are an app asking you to come back: a sale, a streak, someone you might know. Those can go.

The audit usually shows that a handful of apps make most of the noise. Start with those. You don't have to perfect every app on the list.

Where the settings are

Open System Settings and click Notifications in the sidebar. The page has two parts.

At the top are settings for Notification Center as a whole. Show previews decides whether the content of a notification appears or only the app's name (Always, When Unlocked or Never). Below it are switches for whether notifications appear while the display is sleeping, while the screen is locked, and while you're mirroring or sharing the display. That last one is worth checking: with it off, a private message won't pop up in the middle of a screen share or a presentation.

Below that is Application Notifications, the list of every app that has asked to send them. Click an app to see its settings. If you'd like to see what you've already missed, Notification Center itself opens when you click the date and time in the menu bar.

Decide what each app is allowed to do

Click an app and you'll see Allow notifications at the top. Below it are the alert styles, the places a notification can appear, and switches for badges and sounds. Think of each app as getting one of four levels:

The difference between the last two matters. As the Notifications settings explain, banners appear in the upper right corner and go away on their own, while alerts stay on screen until you dismiss them. An app on Alerts takes over a corner of your screen until you deal with it, so be stingy.

There's a faster route for the worst offenders. When a notification arrives, hover over it and click Options, if your version of macOS shows it. You'll usually find Mute for 1 Hour, Mute for Today and Turn Off, which saves a trip to System Settings.

Turn off badges and sounds

Badges are the red numbers on app icons in the Dock. They are quiet, but they nag in a different way: an unread count sitting at the edge of your vision all day invites a click. For mail and chat apps especially, consider turning off Badge application icon. You'll check them when you choose to, not when a number catches your eye.

Sounds are the most disruptive part of a notification, because you notice them even when you're not looking at the screen. Turn off Play sound for notification for everything except the one or two apps where a sound really earns its place. Many people find that silent banners are enough for messages, since they are already looking at the Mac.

Group the rest and hide previews

Two more settings shape how notifications look once they arrive.

• Notification grouping. Each app has a grouping setting with three choices: Automatic, By Application or Off. Grouping by application turns twenty chat notifications into one stack in Notification Center, which is much easier to clear in one go.
• Show previews. You can set previews per app as well as for all apps. Hiding previews for a busy chat app means a banner shows only the app's name, not the message, which makes it easier to leave until you're ready. It is also kinder to anyone who can see your screen.

Notifications from your iPhone

If you use iPhone Mirroring on a recent version of macOS, your iPhone's notifications can show up on the Mac too. Notifications settings has a section for them, where you can turn them off, choose which apps mirror, or silence their sounds. Check it, or the phone's noise simply moves to the Mac.

Keep it cut down

Trimming notifications once is easy. Keeping them trimmed takes two habits.

1. Say no by default. When a new app asks to send notifications, choose not to allow them unless you know why you want them. You can always turn them on later in System Settings.
2. Repeat the audit now and then. Every month or two, scroll down the Application Notifications list and switch off anything that has crept back.

For the times when even the trimmed list is too much, such as a morning of deep work, use a Focus to hold notifications back for a set time. Focus modes on Mac covers allowing people and apps, schedules and filters. Fewer notifications also means fewer switches away from your work, and each switch costs more than it seems, as the cost of switching tasks explains.

Where Notchpals fits

Notchpals visits aren't banners in the corner. A character comes out of the notch, says one line and waits about nine seconds for Done or Later before tucking itself away; ignoring it counts as Later. The repeating ones (water, posture, eye breaks and the like) draw on a single daily allowance for the whole crew, which you choose in Settings: Calm allows four a day, Normal eight and Chatty twelve. It is the same trimming this post recommends, decided up front. Why a character beats another notification goes into why that lands better than one more banner.

None of the settings above reach it. Notchpals ignores your notification settings, Focus modes and Do Not Disturb, and it can't tell when you are sharing your screen, so the mirroring and sharing switch from earlier doesn't cover it. In practice most screen shares happen on a call, and the crew stays in whenever the microphone or camera is on, just as it does over a full screen app on the notch's display. For a share with no call attached, such as mirroring to the screen in a meeting room, pause the crew from the menu bar for an hour before you start.

For a stretch of deep work, a 25 or 50 minute focus session narrows things further. It needs Bolt, the crew's Focus robot, and until the session ends nobody else comes out except to warn of a battery that is nearly flat or a meeting about to start.

BoltI will glare at distractions until they leave. Begin.