Learn how to use Schooltime on Apple Watch to minimize distractions and stay focused during school hours with our step-by-step guide.
Schooltime is a feature intended to help kids focus during school hours. When enabled, you won’t see any notifications or have access to complications or Control Center. This is a sensible feature for children during the school year and goes hand in hand with the Family Setup feature on the Apple Watch. But you don’t have to have kids to use it!
Schooltime is a great feature for adults, too. It allows you to concentrate on your work without being distracted by notifications or even complications that may tempt you.
About Schooltime on Apple Watch
Schooltime is similar to Do Not Disturb and Theater Mode, but of course, there are some slight differences.
With Do Not Disturb, you can silence your notifications, but you can still see your normal Watch face with your complications and access Control Center.
With Theater Mode, you won’t hear notifications but can still receive the Haptic feedback. And your Watch face stays dark when you raise your wrist.
What makes Schooltime different is that you won’t see or feel notifications, your Watch face will be the Schooltime face, and there is no darkening of the face when you raise your wrist. In addition, pressing the Digital Crown for apps or the side button for Control Center won’t work.
The Schooltime Watch face is a basic one. It’s a yellow dial with the digital time and date in the center. It also displays your name at the bottom.
Enabling and disabling Schooltime
If you are using the Family Setup for Apple Watch and want to set Schooltime up for your kids, you can use the Watch app on your iPhone. But for yourself, you can simply access the feature from your Apple Watch Control Center.
Add Schooltime to Control Center
- Open Control Center on your Watch by pressing the Side button.
- Go to the very bottom and tap Edit.
- Tap the Schooltime icon to add it. It should move up with your current icons, and you can tap Done.
Enable Schooltime
Simply tap the Schooltime icon in Control Center. If this is the first time, tap the Schooltime button once again. You’ll see your Watch face change to the one for the feature described above.
Note: DND will enable automatically on your companion iPhone when you activate Schooltime on your Apple Watch.
If you press the Digital Crown or the side button, you’ll be greeted with a message showing you that Schooltime is active and instructions on how to exit.
Exit Schooltime
If you are finished working and want to exit Schooltime, it’s easy enough. Press and hold the Digital Crown on your Watch until you see Unlocked message on the screen. You’ll then see how long you’ve used Schooltime for and buttons for Don’t Exit and Exit. If you’re sure you’re ready to leave, press Exit.
Schooltime is a good feature if you have children with Apple Watches and Family Setup. It lets you schedule Schooltime and view reports that include if they exit the feature. But if you find that you’re frequently distracted while working or focusing on a task, then give it a try for yourself.
What are your thoughts on Schooltime on Apple Watch? Will you enable it while you’re working or save it for your kids? Let us know!
On a related note: