How to set up your Mac for deep work

To set up a Mac for deep work, decide on one task before you start, turn on a Focus mode that lets through only the people and apps you really need, quit everything else, put the work in one window in front of you, and run the session against a timer with a clear start and a clear end. The first time takes ten minutes. After that it takes about one.

"Deep work" is the name Cal Newport gave, in his book of the same title, to long stretches of concentrated work on something hard, with no distractions. Your Mac can't make you concentrate. It can stop interrupting you, and it can make the start and the end of a session obvious. Here is how, step by step.

Decide what the session is for

Plenty of focus sessions fall apart for reasons that have nothing to do with the Mac. You sit down to "work on the proposal", and within five minutes you are tidying the file names, because "work on the proposal" isn't a task.

Before you touch any settings:

• Write down one task, specific enough that you could tell someone else what you are doing. "Draft the pricing section" works. "Proposal" doesn't.
• Decide what done looks like, or where you will stop if it isn't done. A section drafted, a bug reproduced, twenty slides reviewed.
• Open what you need now. The files, the reference document, the one web page. Hunting for them mid-session is how you end up in your inbox.
• Keep a piece of paper by the keyboard. When a stray thought arrives ("reply to Sam", "buy batteries"), write it down and carry on. You deal with the list after the session, not during it.

Turn on a Focus mode

Focus is the macOS feature that silences notifications except from the people and apps you choose. Set one up once and it is there whenever you need it.

1. Open System Settings > Focus. Use Do Not Disturb, or click Add Focus to make one just for deep work, such as Work or a custom Focus with its own name.
2. Under Allowed Notifications, choose the people who can still reach you. Keep it short: family, perhaps your manager, whoever you would truly want to hear from in the next hour.
3. Choose the apps that may still notify you. Calendar is a sensible one if you have meetings later. Chat and email apps usually aren't.
4. Decide whether to allow time sensitive notifications. They exist to get through, which is exactly what you may not want.
5. Back on the main Focus page, leave Share across devices on, so your iPhone goes quiet at the same time.

To turn it on, click Control Center in the menu bar, then Focus, and pick it. You can also add a schedule so it turns itself on at the same time each morning, or whenever you open a particular app. There is more to Focus than this, and this guide to Focus modes on a Mac covers the rest.

Quiet the rest of the Mac

A Focus mode silences banners. It doesn't stop you from wandering off on your own. Take away the easy exits too.

• Quit, don't minimize. Press Command and Q in Mail, in chat apps, and in anything else you won't use in this session. An app that isn't running can't tempt you.
• Close the tabs that have nothing to do with the task. Bookmark them if closing them makes you nervous.
• Turn some notifications off for good. If an app interrupts all day, every day, go to System Settings > Notifications, pick it, and turn off Allow notifications or at least badges and sounds. That is one less thing to silence every time.
• Move your phone out of reach. Even with its Focus on, a phone on the desk is an invitation. Another room is best. A bag is fine.

Put one window in front

The less you can see, the less you drift. Pick whichever of these suits the work.

• Full screen. Click the green button at the top left of the window, or press Control, Command and F. The app gets a space of its own, without the Dock or the rest of your desktop.
• Hide everything else. Press Command, Option and H to hide every app except the one in front. They're still running, just out of sight.
• Two windows, nothing else. If the task needs a document and a reference side by side, macOS Sequoia and later can tile two windows when you drag one to the edge of the screen, or from the Window menu. Hide the rest.
• Stage Manager. Turned on from Control Center, it keeps the current app in the middle and tucks the others to one side.

This post on single-tasking has more ways to keep one thing at a time on screen.

A few shortcuts worth having in your fingers:

Give the session a clear start and end

Deep work goes better when it has edges. A clear start stops you easing in for twenty minutes. A clear end lets you commit fully, because you know it won't last all day.

Make the start a short ritual you repeat: glass of water filled, Focus on, everything else quit, timer started. Doing the same few things in the same order turns them into a cue.

For the timer, the Clock app on your Mac works well. Open Timers, set the length, and give it a label so it shows what the session is for. For the length, 25 or 50 minutes is a good place to begin. Longer is possible once you know you can hold a shorter one.

If you use Notchpals, it can run the timer and mark both edges for you. With Bolt, its Focus robot, in your crew, choose "Start a focus session" from the menu bar and pick 25 or 50 minutes. Bolt opens the session.

BoltSingle-task protocol active. Other tabs, stand down. That means you.

For the length of the session, water, posture, eye breaks and the rest of the crew's reminders stay out of the way. Three things can still reach you: Bolt itself, a battery that is nearly flat, and a meeting a few minutes away on your calendar (the battery warning needs a Tech care character in your crew, the meeting one a Schedule character).

One catch if you like to work in full screen: no character comes out over a full screen app on the notch's display, and that includes Bolt, so you may miss its sign-off at the end. If you want to see it, hide the other apps with Command, Option and H instead of going full screen.

It also helps to know that Notchpals and macOS Focus don't talk to each other. Turning on your Focus doesn't quiet Notchpals, and starting a Notchpals session doesn't turn on your Focus. One holds back notifications and the other holds back the crew, so use both.

End the session properly

How a session ends decides how easily the next one starts.

1. Stop at the end, or close to it. If you are mid-sentence, finish the sentence. If you are mid-chapter, stop anyway.
2. Write down where you stopped and the very next step. "Next: the paragraph on delivery dates." The next session then starts with something to do instead of something to remember.
3. Go through your paper list. Reply to Sam now. Batteries go on the shopping list.
4. Take a real break. Stand up, look at something far away, refill your water. Five minutes away from the screen does more than five minutes in your inbox.

When a Notchpals session ends, Bolt comes back to say so, sometimes with advice for the break.

BoltSession ended. Cooling fans recommended. You have none. Stretch instead.

Then turn off the Focus, or let its schedule do it, and catch up on what came in. It will all still be there. Usually less of it is urgent than it seemed an hour ago. If you want to string sessions together across a day, the Pomodoro technique is a simple way to pace them.