Focus Assist Helps Avoid Distracting Notifications in Windows 10

Has it happened to you that you were busy typing an important document or were talking to an important business partner over Skype and suddenly Windows started to show one notification after another. Those annoying notifications can be very distracting when you are all focused on your work. This is why the new version of Windows 10 now incorporates a new feature called “Focus assist”.

Focus assist feature of Windows 10 is available in the April 2018 update of Windows 10. It is basically like the “Do not disturb” door hanger card that you find in the hotel rooms – if you do not want to be disturbed by the hotel staff then just hang that card on the door knob of your room and nobody will bother you. In Windows 10, you can similarly use the “Focus assist” feature.

Here is how you can enable and configure this “Focus assist” in your Windows 10 PC:

  1. Press the hotkey Win+I to open the Windows settings.
  2. Select System and then Focus assist.Windows 10 Focus Assist
  3. Now you can choose three options for Focus assist: Off, Priority Only and Alarm Only. The last option (Alarm Only) hides all the notifications except the ones that are really serious.
  4. If you scroll down, you will find other options using which you can choose to automatically turn on the “Focus assist” mode. You can set a time range of the day, you can set a situation like when you are duplicating the display or when you are playing a computer game etc.Windows 10 Focus Assist

You can also enable the Focus assist feature from the notification area. For this you have to click on the Action Center, select Focus assist and then choose one of the options – off, priority only or alarm only. When you turn off the Focus assist feature, it will display all the notifications that you have missed when Focus assist of turned on.