Use Tempo with Apple's Focus mode for fewer interruptions

You start a focus block, lean into the work, and ninety seconds in your phone buzzes, then a Slack notification slides across the screen, then a calendar reminder. The session was never really a session. macOS has a tool for this — Focus mode — but most people never wire it up properly because doing it by hand every 25 minutes is the kind of friction that kills habits.

Here are your two options.

Two paths

The native macOS way (Focus + Shortcuts automation)

You can build a Shortcut that turns on a “Work” Focus mode, then sets a timer, then turns Focus off when the timer ends. Apple’s Shortcuts.app supports all three actions. It works.

The honest part: the automation is fragile. If you forget to run the Shortcut, no Focus. If your break runs long, Focus stays on and you miss messages you wanted. If you switch from a 25-minute session to a 50-minute one, you’re editing the Shortcut. And there’s no concept of “Focus during work, off during break” — that’s a second Shortcut you have to build and chain.

It’s a project, not a tool.

The Tempo way

Tempo can flip macOS Do Not Disturb on automatically when a focus session starts and off when the break begins — the toggle lives in Settings.

1. Open Settings > General in Tempo.
2. Enable Do Not Disturb during focus sessions.
3. Start a pomodoro from the menubar.
4. Notice the Mac's Control Center DND indicator flip on the moment the focus block starts.
5. When the break begins, DND turns off — your notifications come back exactly when you're ready for them.

A few things to know. Tempo toggles the system DND directly, so it stacks with whatever Focus profile you’ve set up in System Settings — if you’ve configured a “Work” Focus that hides specific apps, you can run that alongside Tempo’s session-level DND for a tighter filter. On the iPhone side, enable Share Across Devices in System Settings > Focus, and your phone will go quiet too.

The whole point is making the quiet stretch automatic. Start the session, the world goes hushed; finish the session, the world comes back. No Shortcut to remember.