Screen Time on Mac: how to set it up and read it without guilt

Screen Time on a Mac lives in System Settings > Screen Time. Turn on App & Website Activity there, and within a day it shows how long you spend in each app and on each website, how many notifications each app sends you, and, if you choose, the same for your iPhone and iPad.

The same pane also sets limits: a daily allowance for an app or a site, scheduled Downtime, and a list of apps that always work. The harder part is reading the numbers in a way that helps instead of making you feel bad, so that gets a section of its own.

How do you turn on Screen Time on a Mac?

1. Open the Apple menu > System Settings, and click Screen Time in the sidebar.
2. Click App & Website Activity, then turn it on.
3. Back on the main Screen Time page, decide on Share Across Devices. With it on, your iPhone and iPad report into the same view, as long as they are signed in to the same Apple Account. It needs iCloud.
4. If websites don't show up later, look for Include Website Data in the Screen Time settings and turn it on, if your Mac offers it.

On older Macs that still have System Preferences instead of System Settings, Screen Time sits in System Preferences, and the switches above are under an Options button.

Give it a few ordinary working days before you read anything into it. One day tells you very little, and the first day is usually odd because you know you are being watched.

What does Screen Time show?

The main Screen Time page opens three reports. In each, a menu near the top switches between today, earlier days and whole weeks, and with Share Across Devices on you can pick all devices or one at a time.

• App & Website Activity. Total screen time as a bar chart, then a list underneath. Switch the list between apps, websites and categories such as Social and Entertainment.
• Notifications. How many notifications each app sent, by day or week. For focus, this is the most useful report in the pane, because it names the apps that interrupt you most.
• Pickups. How often a device was picked up and which app you opened first. It means a lot more on an iPhone than on a Mac.

A few quirks worth knowing. Website times come mainly from Safari; time in another browser tends to show up as time in that browser app, with no breakdown by site. And data from other devices can take a little while to arrive, so the totals may change during the day.

App Limits, Downtime and Always Allowed

These settings work together, and the names don't make it obvious what each one does.

To add a limit, go to App Limits, click Add Limit, pick the apps, a category or a website, and set the time. You can choose a custom schedule if weekends should be different. When a limit runs out you get a block screen with an Ignore Limit button, which offers One More Minute, Remind Me in 15 Minutes or Ignore Limit For Today.

To set Downtime, open Downtime and choose a schedule, the same every day or custom for each day. You get a five-minute warning before it starts. In recent versions you can also switch Downtime on with no schedule, and it lasts until midnight. Then check Always Allowed, because anything not on that list is blocked when Downtime begins.

If websites are your problem rather than apps, how to block distracting websites on a Mac goes through limits, Content & Privacy and the other options in detail.

Should you set a Screen Time passcode on your own Mac?

Only if the limits keep losing. A passcode turns Ignore Limit from a click into a code, and stops you editing the limits on a weak afternoon.

1. At the bottom of the Screen Time page, turn on Lock Screen Time Settings. Older versions call it Use Screen Time Passcode.
2. If you use an administrator account, macOS suggests making it a standard account and setting up a separate administrator account for managing the Mac. You can say no and keep your account as it is.
3. Set the passcode.

A passcode you know yourself is a mild barrier. A passcode someone else typed is a real one. If you share a home with someone you trust, ask them to set it, and keep a way to reach them for the day you genuinely need an extra hour.

How much screen time is too much on a Mac?

There is no agreed healthy number of hours for an adult who works at a computer. If your job happens at a Mac, eight hours of screen time on a weekday is a description of your job, not a verdict. What matters is how the time is spent and whether it matches what you meant to do.

A few ways to read the numbers without the guilt:

• Split work from the rest. Hours in your editor, your spreadsheet or Mail are work. Look at the categories and apps that are not.
• Pick one or two apps to watch. Choose the apps you want less of, and only track those. A total that lumps everything together tells you nothing you can act on.
• Watch the week, not the day. One long day is noise. A weekly average creeping up for a month is a pattern.
• Read the notifications list as a to-do. The app that sends you the most notifications is the first one to silence. Cutting Mac notifications down shows how.
• Look at when, not only how much. Time on the Mac after your usual bedtime is worth more attention than an extra hour at noon.

The numbers also can't see breaks. Six hours in one long sitting and six hours with a short walk every hour look the same in Screen Time, and they are not the same for your eyes, your back or your attention. Treat the report as a map of where the time went, and plan the breaks yourself.

Screen Time after the fact, Jot in the moment

Screen Time is a report. By the time it tells you the week went to chat, the week is over. Notchpals keeps no tally at all, no stats and no streaks, but it can speak up while there is still time to save the afternoon.

Jot, the sticky note in Notchpals' Focus area, handles that side. With Jot in your crew, spend 20 straight minutes in one of the apps it watches and it comes down from the notch.

JotYou've been scrolling a while! That wasn't on my list!

Be clear about what it watches. The list is fixed: Discord, Telegram, WhatsApp, Messenger, Apple TV, Apple News and Steam. Browsers aren't on it and you can't edit it, so sites in Safari stay a job for App Limits. And unlike an App Limit, Jot blocks nothing and adds nothing to a total. It mentions the time, and closing the app is your call.

Jot also asks, once each weekday morning, for the one thing you want to get done. That is a better place to start than any number in a chart: decide what the day is for, then let Screen Time tell you on Friday how close you came.