There are times when you have a large file downloading on your Mac and want it to shutdown automatically at a time that you believe the download finishes. Luckily, macOS has a built-in scheduling feature that allows you to schedule an automatic shutdown, restart or sleep operation.

Keeping your laptop open at all times is a waste of battery and electricity, therefore it’s a good idea to schedule it to shutdown automatically at a time that you don’t need it. Here’s how you can do it on Mac.

How to Schedule your Mac to Automatically Shutdown, Restart or Sleep

Step 1: Hold down the Command (⌘) key and press Spacebar to open Spotlight.

Step 2: Type “Energy Saver” into the text field and open it. An alternative method is to click on the Apple logo in the menu bar and choose System Preferences. From there, you can open the Energy Saver settings.

Step 3: Click on the Schedule button in the bottom right corner.

Step 4: Here you’ll find two options. The first checkbox allows you to schedule a Start up or wake operation at a specific time. The second checkbox allows you to schedule a shutdown, restart or sleep operation.

Step 5: Tick the second checkbox and then choose Shutdown, Sleep or Restart action from the drop down.

Step 6: Now set the day and time at which it should take place. For example, you can have your Mac shutdown automatically at 2 AM every day.

Step 7: Once you’re done, click the Ok button and close the Energy Saver settings window.

That’s all you need to do. To disable a scheduled task, simply go back to the Energy Saver system preference and uncheck the selected option.

As you may have noticed, you cannot schedule a shut down, sleep and restart operation all at the same time. Only one can be enabled at a time.