Not Now / On a schedule
Block websites on a schedule on your Mac
Deciding every morning to leave YouTube alone is tiring. A schedule decides once, and the sites are gone at eight before you have opened a browser.
Short answer: In Not Now, open Settings, Schedules, add a schedule and pick its days and its start and end time. During those hours your blocked sites do not load in any browser, as long as Not Now is running, so tick “Start Not Now at login”. “Okay, Now” in the menu bar lifts the block whenever you need to.
Set up a schedule
- Open Settings, Schedules
From the Not Now menu in the menu bar. One schedule is already there, weekdays from 08:00 to 12:00, switched off until you turn it on.
- Pick days and hours
Click the weekdays you want, set the start and the end. “Add Schedule” gives you another row.
- Switch it on
Each row has its own switch. When the start time comes, the sites on your list stop loading, in every browser at once.
- Start at login
In Settings, General, tick “Start Not Now at login”. Schedules only run while the app is open.
Examples to start from
- Weekday mornings. Monday to Friday, 08:00 to 12:00. The hours you planned for real work, without the news in between.
- Two afternoons. Monday and Wednesday, 14:00 to 17:00, for the days with the long tasks.
- An evening you keep for later. Sunday 20:00 to 23:00, switched off for now. Turning a schedule off keeps its days and hours, so it is back with one switch.
- The whole day. Set the same time for start and end, and the schedule covers the full day.
Schedules can overlap. While any of them runs, your list is blocked, until the last one ends.
Past midnight
Set an end before the start, and the schedule runs into the next day. Friday 22:00 to 06:00 starts on Friday night and ends on Saturday morning; the day you tick is the day it starts. That covers the late scroll in bed without a second schedule for the morning after. Times follow the clock on your Mac, also on the nights the clocks change.
Unlock any time, also mid-schedule
Sometimes the video you need is on YouTube. Click “Okay, Now” in the menu bar and every site loads again, at once. There is nothing to wait out and nothing to type.
A running schedule then sits out until its own end. The next schedule starts as planned, so unlocking on Tuesday morning does not cost you Wednesday. If you want to block again before then, click “Not Now”, or “Not Now For” 25 minutes up to 4 hours.
Only while the app runs
Not Now starts schedules itself, so it has to be open. Quit it, and every site loads again; that is by design, so nothing stays blocked when you did not mean it to. With “Start Not Now at login” it is always there after a restart, in the menu bar and never in the Dock. If the app crashes, its helper lifts the block on its own after five minutes.
And Screen Time?
macOS has fixed hours as well. On macOS 26 that is Downtime, with one schedule for every day or one per day; blocking the Mac during Downtime needs a Screen Time passcode. On macOS 27, Apple describes Schedules and Time Allowances for categories of apps. Both are built for families and cover more than websites. Apple's guide lists the website filter under Safari, so check your other browsers; the comparison of three ways has the details.
For everything else about the app, see How it works and the questions.
Last checked 23 October 2026.