Who This Is For
If you are part of a team or org rollout and want Rize purely for automatic timesheets, you can turn off every productivity feature: break notifications, meeting reminders, and the distraction blocker. Rize keeps tracking and generating time entries in the background without a single nudge.
Rize ships two kinds of functionality. Automatic tracking captures your activity and builds timesheets. On top of that sit optional productivity features: focus sessions, focus music, Smart Breaks, and meeting reminders when your calendar is connected. The two are independent, so silencing the second never affects the first.
Watch the two-minute walkthrough from Rize co-founder Macgill Davis:
Step 1: Turn Off Notifications
From your homepage, go to Settings, then Notifications. Each notification type has its own toggle, so work down the list and disable them all.
- Smart Break is the one people most often want gone. Turn it off first.
- Meeting reminders live here too. If you connected your calendar and already get reminders from Google Calendar or Outlook, this one is redundant.
With every toggle off, Rize sends nothing.
Step 2: Turn Off the Distraction Blocker
The distraction blocker is a separate feature with its own switch, not one of the notification toggles. This is the step people miss.
Open the distraction blocker settings and toggle it off. Once both areas are off, Rize stops all productivity nudges and runs purely in the background.
Verify the Setup
Work normally for an hour. You should see nothing from Rize: no break prompts, no meeting banners, no blocked pages. Then open the app and check your timeline. If the hour is there, captured and categorized, the silent configuration is working.
Nothing about tracking depends on notifications. Rize keeps recording active-window metadata, the AI keeps drafting time entries, and reviewed entries keep flowing into your team's timesheets and reports. The privacy model does not change either: metadata only, never screenshots, keystrokes, or window contents.
Settings Are Per Person
Notification settings and the distraction blocker belong to the individual, not the workspace. There is no admin switch that forces one preference on everyone.
That granularity matters for a rollout:
- A team member who likes break reminders can keep them while the rest of the org runs silent.
- Someone who used Rize solo before the team adopted it keeps their focus sessions and Smart Breaks.
- Anyone can turn a feature back on later without touching anyone else's setup.
Rollout Checklist for Admins
Fold the two steps into your onboarding instructions:
- Install Rize and sign in to the team workspace.
- Open Settings, then Notifications, and switch off every toggle.
- Open the distraction blocker settings and turn it off.
- Work normally for a day, then spend a minute reviewing suggested time entries.
- Tell the team the settings are personal and reversible.
Rolling out to a whole team? Start with Setting Up a Team, and point skeptical teammates at Privacy and Security.