The Disorienting Desktop Jump
macOS features a robust virtual desktop system known as “Spaces,” allowing you to organize your open windows across multiple distinct screens. By default, the operating system attempts to be helpful: if you click on an application’s icon in the Dock, or if an application generates an alert, macOS will instantly pan your screen to the specific Space where that application’s window is currently located. While this ensures you immediately see the application you requested, the sudden, animated shift across virtual desktops can be incredibly jarring, highly disorienting, and severely disrupt your train of thought if you were actively working in another window.
Keeping Your Workspace Static
If you prefer a static desktop environment where clicking an application merely brings it into focus on your current screen (or simply makes it the active application in the menu bar without moving your viewport), you can disable this automatic Space switching within the System Settings.
Open the System Settings application and navigate to the Desktop & Dock menu in the left-hand sidebar. Scroll down to the very bottom of the main pane until you find the section labelled “Mission Control.” Look for the toggle switch named When switching to an application, switch to a Space with open windows for the application. Turn this toggle off. From now on, your Mac will never forcefully pan you to another virtual desktop. If you click a background app, it will become active, but you must manually navigate to its Space if you wish to see its graphical windows.