What Is It, And How Do You Use It?

Our iPhones are super important for day-to-day life. Oftentimes, they are not only used for social situations, but they can make our work lives a great deal easier by offering quick access to things like email, important texts, and even meetings. However, our smart devices are also distractions, whether they arrive in the form of social media updates, tempting apps like Reddit, or simply an annoying amount of messages when you’re trying to work. Regardless of what your distractions are, Apple’s new Focus mode can help.

Focus Mode is a setting that allows you to silence or pause notifications on an iPhone or iPad in order to pay closer attention to the task at hand or to make sure nothing will wake you up while you’re trying to nap. This sounds like Do Not Disturb, but Focus is different because you get to set different parameters based on your current activity. If you’re reading a book, for example, you can create a custom Focus mode that only allows notifications from certain people and apps to get through. The same is true for any other activity, plus there are Focus presets for Work, Personal, and Sleep.