It’s all too easy to let distractions like social media or videos tempt us from what we need to do (like writing articles about Windows 11, for example). Features like focus assist are now included with operating systems. to try to help us take our eyes off the road, so to speak.
Microsoft’s Focus assist was first introduced in the 2018 update of Windows 10, where it replaced a feature known as Quiet Hours and made the feature easier to use even though Windows 11 didn’t offer any radical updates. Focus assist stops notifications from appearing on your screen and can be activated automatically when your screen is in presentation mode, playing a game or using an app in full screen mode.
I’ll show you how to set up automatic sessions in a moment. First, here’s how to start a Focus assist session manually.
start a session
In Windows 11, Focus assist has been made part of the Clock app. Type “Time” in the Search icon of your taskbar to start a session manually. You will be directed to a page that will help you set how long you want the session to last; You can also set a daily goal if you wish. There are also tiles that let you link your Spotify account (if you have one) to your focus sessions or use Microsoft To-Do to select a task for that session. Don’t you need any of these? Keep reading.
If you click the settings icon at the bottom left of the Clock app, you can adjust the length of your focus time (including breaks) and choose a sound that will play when your focus time (or break) is over. And you can get rid of Spotify and/or To-Do tiles.
The Clock settings page also lets you choose a theme for the app and change your notification settings, including which notifications should not be filtered during the Focus help session.
In order to customize this feature a little more and adjust the automatic settings, you need to go to the “Focus assist settings”.
Focus assist settings
You can access the focus assist settings in several ways: by clicking “Settings” > “System” > “Focus assist”, using the taskbar search icon to find “Focus assist”, or clicking the system clock on the right, on the edge of the taskbar and then “Focus assist settings” go.
While there, there are two main sections.
The first section lets you turn Focus assist on or off and set certain parameters when active:
- “Priority only” limits active notifications to those specified in a priority list. You can adjust this list by selecting the “Customize priority list” link just below the “Priority only” subheading. You can have it always notify you of incoming calls, always notify you of reminders, or allow notifications from certain apps. New in Windows 11 is the ability to prioritize notifications from contacts you specify either pinned to your taskbar or via an “Add contact” button.
- “Alarms only” allows you to hide all your notifications except alarms you may have set.
- Worried you might miss something? If you check “Show a summary of what I missed when Focus assist is on”, you will be automatically notified about all your filtered notifications when Focus assist is no longer active.
The second section titled “Automatic rules” lets you set up a few preset rules. You can toggle each of these pages on or off, but if you want to change its settings, click the feature’s name.
- “During these hours” allows you to set specific times and days for Focus assist to kick in. To edit the settings, select “Between these times” and then open on the next page. You will be able to choose the start and end times for each session; whether it is valid every day, only on weekdays or only on weekends; and whether to allow only priority or only alarms.
Other features under “Automatic rules” work pretty much the same. On the Focus assist page, click the toggle button to turn them on or off and click their names to set them.
- “When I clone my screen” kicks in when your two screens are working; turn it on so you can edit it to allow priority only or alarms only.
- “When I play” is pretty obvious; again, turn it on to change to priority only or alarms only.
- Finally, “When I use an app only in full screen mode” can also be tweaked to be priority only or alarm only.
One last thing: With focus assist enabled, you’ll see a small moon icon on the far right of your taskbar. Click on it and you should be able to see missed notifications.
