How to Set Up Focus Profiles on Mac to Block Distracting Apps

Modern work demands sustained attention, but the constant barrage of notifications from social media, messaging apps, and email makes deep concentration extraordinarily difficult. macOS includes a powerful built-in system called Focus that allows you to create custom profiles which selectively silence notifications and even hide distracting applications entirely. Unlike simply toggling Do Not Disturb, Focus profiles let you define precisely which apps and people can reach you, and you can switch between different configurations depending on whether you are working, studying, exercising, or relaxing.

What Are Focus Profiles and How Do They Differ from Do Not Disturb?

Do Not Disturb is essentially a single, all-or-nothing switch that silences every notification on your Mac. Focus profiles, introduced in macOS Monterey and significantly improved in subsequent releases, are far more granular. You can create multiple named profiles — for example, Work, Personal, Reading, or Gaming — and each profile can have its own unique set of rules governing:

• Which people are allowed to send you notifications.
• Which apps are allowed to display alerts.
• Whether your lock screen shows silenced notifications.
• Whether time-sensitive notifications can break through.
• Which apps appear or are hidden on your Home Screen (on iPhone and iPad, synced via iCloud).
• Custom schedules or location-based triggers that activate the profile automatically.

Do Not Disturb still exists as one of the default Focus profiles, but it is now just one member of a much larger system. Creating your own custom profiles gives you significantly more control over your digital environment.

How to Create a Custom Focus Profile on macOS

Setting up a new Focus profile takes only a few minutes and does not require any third-party software.

1. Click the Apple Logo in the top-left corner of the menu bar and select System Settings.
2. In the left-hand sidebar, scroll down and click on Focus.
3. You will see a list of default Focus profiles such as Do Not Disturb, Sleep, and Personal. Click the Add Focus button at the bottom of the list.
4. macOS will present a selection of suggested Focus types: Custom, Gaming, Fitness, Mindfulness, Reading, and Work. Each comes with slightly different default behaviours. For maximum control, select Custom.
5. Give your Focus profile a name (e.g., Deep Work) and choose a colour and icon to make it easily recognisable in the menu bar.
6. Click Next to begin configuring the profile rules.

Configuring Allowed Notifications from People

The first configuration screen asks you to choose which contacts are allowed to notify you while this Focus is active.

• Allow Notifications From: Click the Add People button to select specific contacts whose messages and calls will still come through. This is useful for allowing your manager or family members to reach you during a work session.
• Silence Notifications From: Alternatively, you can flip the logic and allow everyone except specific contacts.
• Allow Calls From: You can separately configure who can call you — options include Everyone, Contacts Only, Favourites, or specific groups.
• Allow Repeated Calls: Enabling this ensures that if someone calls twice within three minutes, the second call breaks through the silence. This is a useful safety net for genuine emergencies.

Configuring Allowed Notifications from Apps

This is where Focus profiles become genuinely powerful for productivity.

• Allow Notifications From: Click Add Apps to select the specific applications that are still allowed to display notifications. For a Deep Work profile, you might allow only Calendar (to remind you of meetings) and Slack (if your team uses it for urgent communication).
• Silence Notifications From: Alternatively, allow all apps except those you find distracting, such as social media clients, news aggregators, or games.
• Time Sensitive Notifications: You can toggle whether time-sensitive notifications (such as delivery updates or reminders) are allowed to break through even when the app is silenced. This is enabled by default and is generally worth keeping on.

The key decision is whether to use an allowlist (block everything, allow only specific apps) or a blocklist (allow everything, block only specific apps). For maximum focus, the allowlist approach is almost always more effective because it forces you to consciously decide which interruptions are genuinely necessary.

Setting Up Focus Schedules and Automation

Manually toggling a Focus profile every morning is inconvenient and easy to forget. macOS allows you to automate activation based on time, location, or app usage.

1. Within your Focus profile settings, scroll down to the Set a Schedule section.
2. Click Add Schedule.
3. Choose from three trigger types:
   • Time: Set specific days and times (e.g., Monday to Friday, 09:00 to 17:00) for the Focus to activate automatically.
   • Location: Choose a geographic location (such as your office address) that triggers the Focus when your Mac detects you are there.
   • App: Select a specific application (such as Xcode or Final Cut Pro) that triggers the Focus whenever you open it.

You can combine multiple schedules. For example, your Deep Work profile could activate automatically every weekday morning from 09:00 to 12:00, and also activate whenever you open your code editor.

Using Focus Filters to Customise App Behaviour

Focus Filters take the system a step further by allowing you to change the content that specific apps display while a Focus is active, rather than simply silencing notifications.

Supported Focus Filters include:

• Mail: Display only emails from specific mail accounts (e.g., show only your work email during business hours).
• Calendar: Display only events from specific calendars.
• Messages: Filter conversations to show only those from allowed contacts.
• Safari: Display only a specific set of Tab Groups relevant to your current task.

To configure Focus Filters:

1. Navigate to System Settings → Focus → select your profile.
2. Scroll down to Focus Filters.
3. Click Add Filter and choose the app and filter configuration.

This feature is particularly powerful for professionals who use the same Mac for both personal and business activities. During work hours, you can hide personal email accounts and personal calendars entirely, reducing visual clutter and temptation.

Sharing Focus Status Across Apple Devices

If you use multiple Apple devices — for example, a MacBook, an iPhone, and an iPad — your Focus profiles automatically sync across all devices via iCloud. When you activate Deep Work on your Mac, your iPhone and iPad will simultaneously enter the same Focus state.

This cross-device synchronisation also extends to Focus Status sharing. When enabled, people who message you in Apple Messages will see a subtle indicator that you have notifications silenced, along with an option to notify you anyway if the matter is urgent. This reduces the social pressure to respond immediately.

To enable or disable cross-device sharing:

1. Go to System Settings → Focus.
2. At the bottom of the Focus settings, toggle Share Across Devices on or off.

Quickly Activating a Focus Profile from the Menu Bar

You do not need to open System Settings every time you want to switch Focus profiles.

1. Click the Control Centre icon in the top-right corner of the menu bar (the icon with two horizontal toggles).
2. Click Focus.
3. Select the profile you want to activate.
4. Optionally, choose a duration: For 1 hour, Until this evening, Until I leave this location, or Until the end of this event.

You can also activate Focus profiles using Siri by saying something like: “Turn on Deep Work.”

Practical Focus Profile Configurations Worth Trying

Here are several practical configurations that work well for different scenarios:

• Deep Work: Allow only Calendar and your primary work communication tool. Block everything else. Schedule for weekday mornings.
• Meetings: Allow only Calendar and your video conferencing app (such as Zoom or Microsoft Teams). Trigger automatically when the conferencing app opens.
• After Hours: Allow only calls from Favourites and messages from close family. Block all work-related apps. Schedule for evenings and weekends.
• Writing: Allow nothing. Complete silence. Activate manually when you need absolute concentration.

Experiment with different configurations until you find the setup that genuinely improves your ability to concentrate. The most effective Focus profile is one you do not have to think about — it activates automatically, blocks the right things, and lets through only what truly matters.