This is a clever trick (via Patrick Welker) for setting up a Calendar-alarm automation so you can set predetermined times for when Notification Center is enabled and disabled on your Mac. Just like how Do Not Disturb mode works on your iPhone.

I set it up and it works like a charm. But soon after, I realized that I don’t need an automated time when “Do Not Disturb” mode is active for me. Rather I just need to fiddle with my Notification Center preferences and remove a few apps so their alerts don’t interrupt me. Primarily: Mail.

The other notifications which like to distract me when at my Mac are DMs from Tweetbot, new instant messages, calendar alerts, and software update alerts. The first two are easily handled by simply not having those apps running during times when I don’t want to be disturbed by them. Calendar alerts are important and wanted. It’s the App Store update alerts which drive me nuts — I wish I could remove them as they’re the primary reason I mute Notification Center in the first place.

But when I have Notification Center set to not showing any notifications at all, I also lose notifications from Hazel, MarsEdit, and Transmit — three apps I use quite a bit and for which I want to see notifications from, letting me know of a successful file upload or blog post.

So, if there were a “Do Not Disturb” trick that applied only to the App Store update notifications, well, that would be wonderful.

Scheduling Do Not Disturb Mode for Notification Center on Your Mac