"Oh no, why is she texting me right now?", "No, they shouldn't see that yet." - I've asked myself questions like that a few times when I've either had a colleague next to me starring into my screen, during a live stream on YouTube, or when I'm sharing my screen in a call. I'm sure you know this situation, and think to yourself "Crap, I wish I'd turned on Do Not Disturb mode".

Before macOS Big Sur, this was easily done with option key + Click on the Notification Menu icon. With Big Sur, it has become a bit more cumbersome and requires more clicks (Edit: Thanks to Alex Ferreira, it was pointed out to me that it is easy to switch on the DND mode with Big Sur.). For this reason, I looked for an alternative and found it with my good old friend Alfred.

In a few minutes, you have a "Toggle Do Not Disturb" workflow at hand and are always prepared to turn off your notifications!

Setup the DND Workflow

First, you have to install Alfred and buy the Powerpack. I know it's not free, but believe me, when you calculate how much more productive you become per day, it pays off quickly.

Once you have installed Alfred you need to create a new workflow. To do this, open Alfred, click on Workflows, and then on the + symbol at the bottom of the list. For this workflow, we select Blank Workflow.

In the new pop-up, enter the necessary information - similar to mine in the screenshot.

Then press Create. In the following video, I show you how to finish setting up the workflow in Alfred.

The last thing you have to do is open the Keyboard settings on your Mac and the tab Shortcuts. There you look for the Turn Do Not Disturb On/Off command and enter the same keyboard shortcut that you just selected in Alfred.

That's it. 🥳

Use the DND Workflow

Next time you open Alfred, enter the Trigger Keyword - which was in our example tdnd and you should see your Workflow as I do. Select it and DND should be activated or deactivated.

Pro Tip 🔥

In some apps, you can activate the Do Not Disturb mode automatically. Zoom is one of them. Open the settings and activate "Silence system notifications when sharing desktop".

This only applies to Zoom and other apps will follow suit. And so I have another pro-tip for you here too. Take a look at muzzle. This free tool automatically activates DND when it detects that you are sharing your screen - in all apps. A lifesaver in many a situation when you forget to use your Alfred workflow.

Questions and Feedback

You got any questions or want to add your thoughts? Let me know in the comments below, please.

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