Everything under control. Until someone asks to see the budget file.

When I want to look at something specific with someone on their Mac, say the budget file, it rarely starts with the budget file. It starts with the search for it. Several browser windows, each with so many tabs that you can no longer read the titles. Word and Excel open several times over, some documents twice. At the bottom, a Dock with no room left in it. Then someone spends minutes clicking through windows, all of which they opened themselves.

Moments earlier, the same person has usually told me that they have it all well under control.

I have seen a great many other people’s Macs in my working life, and this is their default state. It has little to do with sloppiness. The screen has taken on a job it was never built for. On Windows, the operating system piles on a fair amount more of its own accord.

The screen is a list nobody keeps

An open tab is a reminder. I still want to read that article. That spreadsheet is still missing a figure. Instead of being written down, the thing stays where it is guaranteed to turn up again. With a few tabs, that works. Beyond that, the screen is a list without headings and without next actions, and every glance at it demands a small decision that you don’t record anywhere. A Mac makes it worse, because people close the lid instead of shutting it down. Whatever was open on Monday is still open on Friday.

The second source is the manufacturer. Out of the box, Windows shows advertising on the lock screen, in the widgets, in Settings and in File Explorer. It isn’t even hidden: the settings page in charge of it is literally called “Recommendations & offers”. It’s just that nobody notices any more. On top of that comes every app that takes the liberty of interrupting you.

In GTD, you decide when to look at your in-trays. A notification turns that around: it picks the moment and demands a decision without capturing it. “Later” isn’t written down anywhere, so your head holds on to it. A notification is an in-tray that empties itself straight into your head.

Making Windows 11 distraction-free

These are the switches I go through when someone asks me how to set up Windows for focused work. None of them is compulsory. Each one is a decision, and until now the factory settings have been making exactly that decision for you.

Notifications: app by app

Settings > System > Notifications, then further down the list “Notifications from apps and other senders”. Go through the whole list once, with one question per app: do I need to hear about this while I’m working on something else?

For Chrome, my answer is no. For the calendar it’s yes, because appointments are tied to a time. The calendar is the hard landscape of your day, and its reminders stay on. If they come through Outlook, don’t switch Outlook off; switch off only the mail notification in Outlook’s own settings.

Fixed hours without interruptions

On the same page, you can have “Do not disturb” turn on automatically for a fixed time slot. A few people I have worked with set it for 8 to 10 every day. For those two hours, neither Teams nor the email program makes a sound. During that time they can only be reached by phone, and their colleagues need to know that. Anything that should still get through, appointment reminders for example, you set as a priority notification on the same page.

For quiet at short notice, there is the focus session, which everyone has seen and hardly anyone has used. Click the time in the bottom right-hand corner or press Windows key + N, choose a duration, say 25 minutes, and click the play button. Until the timer runs out, “Do not disturb” is on.

The built-in advertising

Four places, all of which can be switched off:

Where	Path	What you switch off
Privacy	Settings > Privacy & security > Recommendations & offers	every switch, starting with “Personalised offers”
Notifications	Settings > System > Notifications > Additional settings	every tick box, above all the one for tips and suggestions
Lock screen	Settings > Personalisation > Lock screen	“Get fun facts, tips, tricks, and more on your lock screen”
File Explorer	three dots > Options > View tab	“Show sync provider notifications”

“Personalised offers” is the most important switch: it is how Windows shows you tips, ads and recommendations based on what you do on your computer. With the advertising ID on the same page, realistic expectations help. Switching it off won’t get you fewer ads; apps simply can no longer recognise you by that identifier.

The lock screen has a catch. As long as “Personalise your lock screen” is set to Windows spotlight, the option stays out of the spotlight altogether. It only appears once you switch to a fixed picture or a slideshow. The File Explorer switch covers the notices that OneDrive and other sync services use to advertise themselves in the file window.

The taskbar, and launching from the keyboard

Settings > Personalisation > Taskbar. Under “Taskbar items” you’ll find Search, Task view and Widgets, among others. Surprisingly few of the people whose computers I know use Search or Task view. Set Search to “Hide” and switch the other two off. Alongside the weather, the widgets show a news feed that I file under clickbait.

Under “Other system tray icons” are the small icons next to the clock: OneDrive, OneNote, Teams and whatever else moves in there at start-up. Anything you switch off here keeps running and stays within reach via the little arrow. It’s just no longer in your line of sight all the time.

The magnifying glass can go, because the Windows key searches. Press it, type the first three or four letters, then Enter. “word” starts Word, “exc” starts Excel, and it finds files the same way. There is no faster way to get anywhere in Windows, and I stopped keeping program icons around a long time ago. Practise this for a few days before you hide the magnifying glass, or you’ll pin everything back out of habit.

On the Mac: notifications and the Dock

On the Mac, Command + Space opens Spotlight search, and the principle is the same. In System Settings > Notifications, the apps are listed at the bottom, and as in Windows, each one can be switched off individually. The top of the page is more about discretion:

• Show previews: “When Unlocked” or “Never”, and the iPhone uses the same names. I have often been in meeting rooms full of open MacBooks over the lunch break, and time and again a screen somewhere would light up and show the beginning of an email.
• Allow notifications when the screen is locked: off.
• When mirroring or sharing the display: “Notifications Off”. For anyone who often shares their screen or plugs into a projector, this is the most important switch on the page.

As for Summarise notifications, I think it’s mostly hype; in my experience, the summaries are rarely much use.

Under System Settings > Desktop & Dock:

• Size smaller, Magnification on. The icons grow under the pointer and otherwise take up hardly any room. I didn’t pay for a big screen so that icons could live on it.
• Minimise windows into application icon: on. Minimised windows no longer get an icon of their own. Right-clicking the application icon lists them by name, which in Word means by document title.
• Show suggested and recent apps in Dock: off. The Dock then shows only what you have deliberately put in it and what is currently running.

Anything you never launch from the Dock, drag out until “Remove” appears. Only a handful of programs have a permanent place in my Dock.

Paul Martin sees minimising into the application icon differently, and the objection is a fair one: if you only minimise two or three windows that are clearly different from each other, the thumbnails in the Dock get you back to them faster than a right-click. That holds for someone who closes windows as soon as they’re done with them. On the Mac from the first paragraph, it never stays at two or three.

Clarify the tabs, don’t just move them

Settings make the screen quieter, but they don’t close a single window. That takes the step GTD calls clarifying, applied to every open tab:

What the tab is	Where it belongs
done or doesn’t matter	close it
reference you might need again	bookmark or file it, then close it
something you still want to read	onto the Read/Review list with its link, then close it
material for a project	link into the project’s support material, next action onto the right list, then close it
what you’re working on right now	stays open

A tab makes a poor reminder. It stores where something is, but not why it concerns you or what needs doing next. That is exactly what clarifying adds.

Where it typically goes wrong

Everything off, the calendar included. Switch off every notification in the first sweep and you’ll miss your next appointment and, out of annoyance, switch it all back on. Decide app by app; the calendar stays on.

Switched off, but no rhythm. Without fixed times at which you process your email and chats instead of working through them, you’ll simply keep checking yourself. Then the interruption has only changed sender.

The focus time only you know about. Two quiet hours only hold if the team knows about them and has another way to reach you in a real emergency.

The bookmarks folder as a graveyard. Moving every tab into a “Read later” folder isn’t clarifying, it’s moving house. What you want to read belongs on a list that you actually look at in your weekly review.

Set up once, never checked again. Microsoft regularly moves and renames these switches. For a long time the advertising ID sat under Privacy & security > General; today it is under Recommendations & offers. After a major Windows update, a second pass is worth it.

Common questions

How do I make Windows 11 distraction-free?

Three changes make the biggest difference: switch off notifications app by app under Settings > System > Notifications, turn off the switches under Privacy & security > Recommendations & offers, and cut the taskbar down to what you actually use. Calendar reminders stay on, because appointments are tied to a fixed time.

Where do I turn off the ads on the Windows lock screen?

Under Settings > Personalisation > Lock screen. There, switch “Personalise your lock screen” from Windows spotlight to Picture or Slideshow. Only then does the option “Get fun facts, tips, tricks, and more on your lock screen” appear, and you untick it.

Can I set fixed times without notifications in Windows?

Yes. Under Settings > System > Notifications, you can have “Do not disturb” turn on automatically at certain times of day, for example every day from 8 to 10. For focus at short notice, there is the focus session in the notification centre (Windows key + N), which turns on “Do not disturb” until its timer runs out.

What do I do with too many open browser tabs?

Clarify each tab once: close it if it’s done, bookmark it if it’s reference, and put it on a Read/Review list with its link if you still want to read it. Only what you’re working on right now stays open. A tab is no good as a reminder, because it stores where something is, but not what needs doing next.

Which Dock settings make a Mac calmer?

Under System Settings > Desktop & Dock, turn on “Minimise windows into application icon” and turn off “Show suggested and recent apps in Dock”. The Dock then shows only programs you have deliberately put there and the ones that are currently running.

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Before you close the lid today, go through every open window and tab once. Anything you can’t justify in one sentence, close. Clarify the rest until the only thing still open is what you’ll start with tomorrow.

Notifications and the taskbar are usually just the visible part. Behind them there are often more tools than anyone needs, and every one of them wants something from you. In the Digital Workplace Audit we look at your tool landscape together and decide what stays. Write to me if your computer wants more from you than it takes off your hands.