Back in OS X Mountain Lion, it took a seriously complex shell script and recurring Calendar event to schedule Do Not Disturb times. While it’s fun to dig in and mess about with scripts, I much rather like the new Mavericks beta ability to just, you know, schedule Do Not Disturb using a nice, pretty graphical user interface.
If you’re like me, and you want to schedule your Do Not Disturb times on your Mac (much the same way you can on iOS), then here’s what to do.
Launch System Preferences from the Dock or the Applications folder, and then click on the Notifications icon. Click on the Do Not Disturb icon in the left-hand column, and then you’ll see the options for this, including scheduling.
Click on the checkbox next to the From: field and either type in the time you want the Do Not Disturb feature to start. Then do the same in the to: field, only choose the time you want Do Not Disturb to stop working.
You can also choose to activate Do Not Disturb when the display is sleeping, or when mirroring to TVs and projectors, to keep any embarrassing iMessages from popping up during a presentation in front of hundreds of your co-workers.
Further down, you’ll see options to allow Facetime calls when Do Not Disturb is enabled, and you can allow them from Everyone, or just Favorite contacts. If you check the “Allow repeated calls” checkbox, then anyone who needs to Facetime you in an emergency simply needs to call back a second time.
Now you can keep from being distracted by the many notifications you get through Notification Center, and you don’t have to get all tech-geeky to do so. Hooray, OS X Mavericks!
