Working on important things comes with its own challenges. But it doesn’t help when there are distractions lurking in the form of notifications, app activity, and calls. Many users would rather turn off all their notifications to keep these mundane distractions at bay. But that can come at the cost of missing out on updates that are important to you.

For Windows users, Do Not Disturb mode is a way to better focus on your work without missing important notifications. Formerly called Focus Assist, Do Not Disturb is now a much simplified version of its predecessor that lets you prioritize which apps, calls, and reminders can reach you while you’re busy focusing.

Here's everything you need to know about setting up Focus Assist notifications based on priority.

Focus Assist has been part of Windows in one form or another since 2018. But it was renamed to “Do Not Disturb” last year, with some minor tweaks to the notification settings. There’s also a new “Focus” mode that automatically turns on DND when in use.