If you’re using Windows 10 and you’d like to maintain productivity and minimise distractions from your operating system e.g. notifications, sounds and alerts, ‘Focus Assist’ can help you to achieve this and can now be turned on automatically for full-screen apps.

With Focus Assist you can choose which notifications you’d like to see and hear when working, and you can choose the automatic rules for these (using on/off toggles) so that you can minimise distractions at certain times and during certain activities. You can also ask Focus Assist (with a simple tick box) to give you a summary of what you missed while it was on.

To use Focus Assist:

Type ‘Focus Assist’ in your Windows 10 search box (bottom left)

Select ‘Focus Assist Settings’ or ‘Focus Assist Rules’

Make your notifications choices: ‘Off’, ‘Priority Only’, or ‘Alarms Only’

Use the On/Off toggles to set your ‘Automatic Rules’.