Filter Work and Personal Notifications in macOS 13

Focus modes in macOS 13 Ventura allow you to separate your professional and private lives by selectively muting apps, silencing contacts, and tailoring the content displayed across your system. By setting up distinct "Work" and "Personal" Focus profiles, you can eliminate distractions during business hours and prevent work-related interruptions during your personal time. This guide covers how to create, configure, filter, and automate these profiles to regain control over your daily notifications.

Accessing Focus Settings

To begin configuring your profiles:

  1. Open the Apple menu () in the top-left corner of your screen.
  2. Select System Settings.
  3. In the sidebar, click Focus.

Creating and Customizing a Work Focus

  1. Click Add Focus and select the Work preset (or select Custom to build one from scratch).
  2. Allowed People: Click Allowed People to decide who can contact you. Choose Allow Notifications From and add coworkers or managers, or select Silence Notifications From to block specific contacts while allowing everyone else.
  3. Allowed Apps: Click Allowed Apps to set boundaries for software. Select work-critical tools such as Slack, Zoom, or Microsoft Teams, and exclude social media or entertainment applications.

Creating and Customizing a Personal Focus

  1. Return to the main Focus menu and select the Personal preset.
  2. Set up Allowed People to only permit incoming messages or calls from friends and family.
  3. In Allowed Apps, grant notification permissions exclusively to personal communication channels, streaming services, or reading apps, ensuring that work communication platforms are silenced.

Setting Up Focus Filters

macOS 13 introduced Focus Filters, which alter how supported apps behave depending on your active profile:

  1. Scroll down to the Focus Filters section within your chosen Focus profile.
  2. Click Add Filter.
  3. Configure app behaviors:
    • Calendar: Hide work calendars when in Personal mode, and vice versa.
    • Mail: Show only designated email inboxes (e.g., your corporate account for Work, and iCloud or Gmail for Personal).
    • Safari: Limit your browsing session to a specific Tab Group (such as a research group for work or shopping tabs for personal time).
    • Messages: Filter the conversation list to only show allowed contacts.

Automating Focus Schedules

You can automate your transitions so you do not have to switch modes manually:

  1. Under your selected Focus, look for the Set a Schedule section.
  2. Click Add Schedule.
  3. Choose a trigger:
    • Time: Automatically turn on Work mode between 9:00 AM and 5:00 PM on weekdays.
    • Location: Activate your profile when arriving at the office or coming home.
    • App: Trigger a profile automatically when opening a specific productivity app or personal game.

Manual Switching via Control Center

To toggle Focus modes manually:

  1. Click the Control Center icon (two sliders) in the menu bar.
  2. Click the Focus button.
  3. Select Work, Personal, or turn the current profile off to resume all standard notifications.