How to Set an Alarm on Mac (5 Methods Explained)

Whether you need an alarm clock for everyday tasks, meetings, or whatever, there’s no easy way to do it on a Mac due to the lack of a built-in clock app. However, I have found some workarounds to help you set an alarm on Mac.

You can use default apps like Calendar and Reminders, third-party websites, or alarm clock apps on Mac. Let’s start with the simplest.

Important Note: The methods below will only work if your Mac is not in sleep mode. I wrote two guides that will show you how to prevent your Mac desktop and laptop from going to sleep. Check them out.

• 3 ways to stop your Mac from sleeping
• How to Keep Your MacBook from Sleeping with the Lid Closed

1. Set an alarm on Mac using Apple calendar.

Calendar event alerts on Mac are invisible. You will see a notification in the upper right corner and hear a faint one-second sound. It’s more like a timer than an alarm, but it can come in handy sometimes.

For example, you work on your Mac and want to be reminded to take food out of the oven after 2 hours. In this case, you can quickly create a calendar event with an alert (alarm) by following these steps.

• Open the Calendar app on your Mac. To do this, press command + spacebar and search for it.
• Click the + icon in the top left corner. Enter the information about the event in the specified format. For example, type see oven today at 11:58 and press enter. A calendar event will be created. Now in the pop-up window, click Alerts and select one of the options. If necessary, you can fill in additional information.
• Alternatively, if you are in month view, double-click inside the desired date field. You will see a New Event popup. Now enter the name of the event, time, alert and other details. Note. If you double-click on the exact number of a date, it will open in full screen mode, which may be convenient for some.
• To get rid of a calendar event, right-click it and select Delete.

2. Set an alarm on Mac with Kuku Klok

Kuku Klok is a neat and easy to use website with multiple alarm sounds. What’s better is that you only need an internet connection to set the alarm. After that, the alarm will ring even if your Mac is not connected to the Internet. Here’s how to use it.

• Visit Kukuklok.com using any Mac browser.
• Use the + and – buttons or keyboard keys to set the time.
• Select a sound on the right.
• Finally, click SET ALARM CLOCK.
• Make sure you don’t close this browser tab.

Another great Kuku Klok alternative is vClock.

3. Use a third party app: Wake Up Time

Wake Up Time and Sleep Alarm Clock are two powerful third-party alarm clock apps for Mac that get the job done. In the steps below, I will detail the first one.

• Download the Wake Time app for free from the Mac App Store.
• Click Alarm Time to set the desired time on the right. You can also use the keyboard or tiny arrows.
• And it’s done! The alarm is set.
• Optional: Select a sound. Tap the triangle icon to view audio.
• The dot at the bottom left is for turning the alarm on and off.

Pro Tip: This app also needs to keep your Mac awake for the alarm to work. However, to handle this better, Wake Up Time has a little helper app that puts your Mac to sleep and automatically wakes it up during an alarm.

To do this, click the button (i) in the lower right corner of the Wake Up Time application. Next, read the instructions, frequently asked questions and install the application. After installation, you will see the word Sleep instead of (i) in the Wake Up Time app.

4. Create alarms on Mac with the Reminders app.

Just like the calendar app, you can use the Mac Reminder app to create alarm alerts. It also shows a notification and a one second alert similar to calendar events.

• Open “Reminders”on Mac and click the “+”icon in the top right corner.
• Enter the desired name and then click the (i) you see at the end of the line.
• Check remind me for a day.
• Now set your desired date and time. You can also consider several other options visible there.
• Finally, click Done.

5. Set an alarm on macOS with Siri (sort of)

I mentioned the lack of a built-in alarm function in the first paragraph of this post. This is reflected when you launch Siri on your Mac and ask it to set an alarm. Instead, it will prompt you to set a reminder. You can continue this if you like. Please see the screenshot below.

Conclusion!

I believe the above methods answered your request. They are not as convenient as an alarm clock on an iPhone or iPad. However, they do work if you ever need them. Are there any other questions? Please post them in the comments section below.