How To Set a Do Not Disturb Keyboard Shortcut on Your Mac

One of macOS’s most useful features for allowing you to work uninterupted is “Do Not Disturb.” As the name entails, Do Not Disturb essentially silences all of your Mac’s notifications, whether it be a message, phone call, email, app update notification or anything else of the sort. The notifications are automatically routed to the Notification Center for you to view later, essentially leaving your workflow undisturbed.

While there are many methods to enable Do Not Disturb, there’s also a keyboard shortcut that you can use to enable it easily.

Also read: 9 of the Best Alternatives to Apple’s Magic Keyboard

Default Keyboard Shortcut for Do Not Disturb

Apple has created a keyboard shortcut to activate “Do Not Disturb” mode. All you need to do is press and hold down the Option key and click on the Notification Center on the top right of your screen. Doing this will automatically enable/disable Do Not Disturb on your Mac. This can be confirmed by a change in the color of the Notification Center icon – it’ll turn light grey when Do Not Disturb is enabled and will become white again once it’s disabled.

This is undoubtedly the quickest default way to enable/disable Do Not Disturb, but it includes the use of your Mac’s trackpad or mouse in order to enable it. That’s why it’s not really a true keyboard shortcut. Fortunately, you can create a customized keyboard shortcut for this feature.

Also read: 21 of the Best FaceTime Tips and Tricks to Use it Like a Pro

How to Create Your Own Keyboard Shortcut for Do Not Disturb

If you’d like to have a true keyboard shortcut that enables/disables Do Not Disturb, you can customize one for yourself in macOS’ System Preferences.

1. Open System Preferences on your Mac.

2. Click on “Keyboard.”

3. Click on the “Shortcuts” tab.

4. Select “Mission Control” in the pane on the left, and select “Turn Do Not Disturb On/Off.” Make sure the option for the shortcut is checked.

5. Press the Enter button on your keyboard, and you’ll be allowed to set a keyboard character combination of your choice. Press the keys you want to use for the shortcut together, and they should now appear on the screen.

For example, in the example above, I’ve specified Command + Shift + 8 as my keyboard shortcut. If the character combination you’ve selected is already being used as another shortcut by macOS, you’ll automatically get a warning / caution icon which will allow you to change it to avoid any conflict.

You’ll now be able to use your set keyboard shortcut for enabling / disabling Do Not Disturb easily on your Mac.

Did you find this guide useful? Let us know in the Comments section below.