In an interconnected world like the one we live in today, where the rain of notifications is incessant, staying focused on what we are doing is often a very difficult task. Instant messaging applications sending message balloons, notifications from Google Chrome, YouTube, messages … it seems that everything conspires so that we cannot concentrate and work in silence.
All mobile operating systems have the option to block notifications of all kinds so that they do not bother us while we have been working for quite some time. However, in the case of computer operating systems, this kind of feature took a little longer to arrive. Fortunately, Windows launched its focus assist a couple of years ago, which as its name suggests, its function is to prevent being disturbed so that we can maintain full concentration while we work.
If you want to know what it is, how it works and how to enable the Focus Assist in Windows 10, we recommend that you continue reading.
What is the Focus Assist
Basically it is a system whose main objective is that notifications do not appear on the computer screen while we work or whenever we want it to be. Although this tool is responsible for releasing pop-up notifications from the screen of our computer, these will appear accumulated in a section that Windows calls “activity center”.
The assistant allows you to block the display of absolutely all notifications forever or during certain hours of the day that you choose or you can decide which applications can show you notifications and which ones not. We will see in the next section how to configure the wizard for both cases.
All notifications
The first thing you have to do is access the wizard. To do this, go to Windows Settings from the Windows icon located in the lower left corner of the screen and within the options click on the gear icon.
Among all the options that will appear in the pop-up menu, click on the “ System” option and here choose “Focus Assist”. The option is accompanied by the icon of a moon, so it is very easy to find with a simple glance.
When you click on this option you will already be inside the wizard and this is where we have all the notification configuration options available. The three main options are:
- Disabled : if you choose this option, the Focus Assist is completely disabled, in other words, Windows 10 will show you each and every one of the notifications you receive on your computer both in the form of pop-up windows and within the activity center.
- Priority only : if you check this option, the wizard will only show you the notifications that you select from your priority list. All other unselected notifications will be displayed in the action center.
- Alarms only : with this option each and every one of the pop-up notifications will be completely blocked and will only be shown in the action center.
Choose priorities
As we have just seen, one of the options available in the assistant allows you to choose which notifications can appear on your screen and which not. To customize this, click on the Customize priority list option in the configuration menu, just below “Priority only”.
In the first available option, you can make call notifications, text messages or reminders a priority. Within this option you can enable or disable notifications for all calls including VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) . Regardless of this, you can choose whether or not the notifications are activated regardless of the application used.
In the next point is the contacts option. In it you can add contacts so that you receive all the notifications related to it in applications such as Skype, mail (in the native Windows assistant), calls or messages.
In the last point of this section you have the option of adding applications that you want to be able to show you or not notifications. Click on the Add button with the (+) symbol to add the applications that you want to have priority. For example, you can add notifications from Skype, Chrome or WhatsApp if you have these apps installed. Choose the one you want and click on it to be added to the list.
Remember that in order for the notifications of the apps you just added to be displayed, you must have the ” Only priority” option of the wizard activated.
Choose the hours of the assistant
You can decide when you want the options you just defined to apply. To do this, go back to the setup menu of the assistant and press “During these hours”. A menu with a tab will open, slide it to the right and the setup wizard for the designated times will begin.
In the first section choose the time you want to start and in the second the time you want the activation to end.
You can then decide to your liking how often you want it to be activated. The available options are:
- Daily
- Weekends
- Weekdays. If you choose this option you can select the specific days of the week that you want to be activated independently.
Below this option you have two more for very specific occasions.
- On the one hand you have “Duplicating my screen”. If you choose this option every time you share a screen, for example during a presentation or when you mirror the screen on a television, notifications will be blocked to preserve your privacy.
- On the other hand you have “When I play”. If you activate it, the system will recognize that you are playing any local or online game and will block the notifications so that they do not distract you.
- Last is the option “when I use an application in full screen mode”. The name of this option is completely descriptive and it is very useful so as not to be distracted when we are working in full screen photo or video editors.