You can schedule your Mac to shut down using Terminal commands, but you might be a little wary of using commands like “pmset” that you don’t fully understand. The alternative is to use the Shortcuts app and a variety of triggers.
How to Create a Shortcut to Shut Down Your Mac
If typing random commands you don’t understand into Terminal to shut down your Mac feels too much like witchcraft, you can turn to the Shortcuts app instead. Creating a shortcut to shut down your Mac is incredibly simple since there’s a dedicated action for doing exactly that. All you need to do is add the action to your shortcut.
When the shortcut is triggered, a pop-up message will appear asking if you’re sure you want to shut down your Mac. If you don’t do anything within 60 seconds, your Mac will shut down.
To create the shortcut, open the Shortcuts app on your Mac. Click the “+” (plus) icon at the top of the screen to create a new shortcut. In the search bar on the right of the screen, enter “Shut Down.” Select the “Shut Down” action from the results and drag it into your shortcut. Give your shortcut a name and close the shortcut to save it.
You can now shut down your Mac by running your shortcut at any time.
How to Run Your Shortcut Using the Calendar
There’s one major difference between the Shortcuts app on Mac and iPhone. On your iPhone, you can create automations with a wide array of different triggers. It’s possible to get a shortcut to run on your iPhone at a specific time, for example.
On Mac, there are no automation triggers. If you want your shortcut to run at a specific time, you have to find other ways of making it happen. One of the simplest is by running your shortcut from the Calendar app.
Any event you create in the Calendar app can be used to open a file instead of triggering an alert. You can use this feature to launch your shortcut and use Calendar events to create your schedule for shutting down your Mac.
Before you can trigger a shortcut from a Calendar event, you need to turn it into an application. Open the Shortcuts app, and right-click the “Shut Down” shortcut you created using the steps in the section above. Select “Add to Dock.” This turns your shortcut into an application file that you can now run from the Calendar app.
Open Calendar and click the “+” (plus) icon at the top of the screen and click “New Event.” Give the event a name and set the date and time that you want the shortcut to be triggered.
Click “Add Alert, Repeat, or Travel Time.” Click the “Repeat” dropdown and select “Every Day” to make the event repeat daily, or “Custom” if you want to set a more complex schedule.
Click the “Alert” dropdown and select “Custom.” Select the “Message With Sound” dropdown and select “Open File.” Click “Calendar” and select “Other.” Open the “Applications” folder and select your shortcut.
Click “Minutes Before” and select “At Time of Event” to make the shortcut run at the exact time of your calendar event. Click OK to save your event.
Now when the date and time for your event or events is reached, your shortcut will run, and your Mac will shut down. By creating repeating events, you can create a shutdown schedule for your Mac that will run indefinitely.
How to Trigger Your Shortcut Using Shortery
Since Shortcuts on Mac doesn’t offer any way to automate your shortcuts, several apps have sprung up to fill the void. One of those is the Shortery app, which allows you to trigger your shortcuts when a wide range of triggers occur, such as when you start an app, plug in your power adapter, or change the contents of a folder.
Another of the triggers lets you run your shortcuts at specific times, the same as you can on your iPhone. However, time-based triggers are a Pro feature, so you’ll need to pay an annual subscription of $9.99 to use them. Time-based triggers will also only run when your Mac is awake.
Download and install the Shortery app and upgrade to the Pro version to enable time-based triggers. Click “Add Shortcut Trigger” at the bottom of the screen. In the “Trigger Type” dropdown, select “Time.” Give your trigger a name and use the “Shortcut” dropdown to select your shutdown shortcut.
Use the “Repeat” dropdown to select when you want your shortcut to run and enter the time that you want it to occur. Deselect any days that you don’t want the trigger to run. Check “Don’t Skip” if you want the shortcut to run once your Mac wakes if it is asleep at the time the shortcut is due to run. Click “Save.”
Your shortcut will now run at the set time, provided that your Mac is awake. You can prevent your Mac from sleeping by clicking the “Settings” icon in Shortery and checking “Prevent Sleeping.”
Shortery is an app that is dedicated to triggering shortcuts, but other general-purpose apps can also do the same thing. Another example is customization app BetterTouchTool, which is packed with features like window snapping and resizing, a clipboard manager, screenshot editing, customizable trackpad gestures, and more.
BetterTouchTool also includes the ability to trigger shortcuts. It’s a paid app that costs $12 for the standard license, with a 45-day free trial. It’s also included in the Setapp subscription if you have that already or are considering purchasing it.
Download and install BetterTouchTool. Open the app, click the dropdown at the top of the screen, and select “Automations & Named & Other Triggers.” Click the “+” (plus) button to create a new trigger. Click the “Select Trigger” dropdown and select “Time Based Triggers,” then “Repeating or Time Based Trigger.”
Under “When to Trigger,” select “Trigger When Matching Date/Time Conditions.” To get the shortcut to run daily, leave all the other fields as they are, and enter the hour you want the trigger to run in the “Hour” field. If you don’t want the shortcut to run exactly on the hour, add a value to the “Minute” field. Click the “Save” button.
Click the “Assign First Action to Selected Trigger” button. Scroll down and click “Controlling Other Applications.” Select “Run Shortcut from Shortcuts App.” Click the “Select Shortcut” dropdown and choose your shutdown shortcut.
Your trigger is now created; at the set times, BetterTouchTool will launch your shutdown shortcut, and your Mac will shut down. As with Shortery, this will only work when your Mac is awake.
If you’re a fan of automating repetitive processes on your Mac, check out what you can do with Automator and discover some more Mac Shortcuts actions that you’ll actually use.
