No matter what you’re trying to do on your PC, chances are that incoming notifications and flashing app badges on the taskbar are ruining your focus. Whether it’s system updates, email notifications, flashing app icons, or app badges indicating unread incoming messages, it takes a monk’s self-control not to be swayed by these interruptions.

Luckily, Windows has a built-in feature—Focus—that pauses all such notifications for a set amount of time, so you can focus on your work. Here’s everything you need to know about Focus, perhaps the most useful feature in Windows 11 for getting things done.

Focus is a relatively new feature on Windows that pauses all notifications and reduces interruptions for the duration of your focus session. During a focus session, Do Not Disturb is enabled and all notifications, app badges, and flashing icons are paused and hidden.

Of course, you can choose not to enable these 'Focus' features. How you ultimately use Focus is up to you. But with the normal Focus features enabled, they'll be tucked away and out of sight, and you'll be able to check your notifications from the notification center once your session is over.