Enable and disable notifications (globally)

Software
1

I spend a lot of time on calls where I am sharing my screen (GoToMeeting, Teams, Skype, etc.). I find it annoying and sometimes embarrassing when notifications pop up random… “I need that report today” or “Stop for milk on the way home”…whatever. There is always the risk of something like “Don’t tell Joe about our conversation” popping up when Joe is on my call at the time.

They come from Messages, Mail, Skype, Teams, etc. They are useful when I am working on my own, but undesirable when I am sharing my screen.

Does anybody know of a way to globally turn off notifications (and then turn them back on again)?

2

I think Do Not Disturb does what you’re looking for:

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3

Really? Cool… I figured there had to be a way.
I will give it a try.

Thanks

4

There’s also https://runtimesharks.com/projects/dnd-me which will let you set DND on the Mac like you can on iOS: for set periods of time and have it automatically turn itself off:

Ever wanted to get more focused work done?

Do you turn Do Not Disturb on, but forget to turn it off?

Look no further!

Activate Do Not Disturb for a few hours and work distraction free!

*Due to system limitations, DND Me does not work if Do Not Disturb is scheduled in System Preferences → Notifications.

There’s a demo here: https://dl.devmate.com/com.runtimesharks.dndme/DNDMe.dmg

It sells for €4.99. Could probably hack something together with Keyboard Maestro if you set up a keyboard shortcut for DND in System Preferences, but it’s probably worth checking out the demo at least.

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5

Thanks. That seems like it could be really useful for other times also .

Enjoyed your interview on MPU last week.

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6

If anyone does presentations on a second monitor, Parallels Toolbox (a collection of tools for an annual fee, or as part of Parallels) has a tool to detect when specified external monitors are connected, and to automatically turn on DND.