While your Mac doesn’t need to completely shut down very often, you can schedule it to turn off and back on without any input from the user. This is especially useful if you’re going to be away from your Mac for a while but want to access it remotely.
In System Preferences you can schedule the computer for daily power cycles, weekdays, weekends, or specific days on a recurring basis. Open System Preferences found in the dock or applications folder.
Under the Hardware Preferences section, click on Energy Saver.
In the next window you’ll see the preferences for screen saver, display sleep, brightness and more. To schedule a power cycle, click the Schedule button in the bottom right-hand portion of the window.
The Schedule settings has two checkboxes, one for starting or waking up, the other for shutting down, restarting, or putting to sleep.
The drop down menu for both options allow you to choose Weekdays (Monday – Friday), Weekends (Saturday and Sunday), Every Day or a specific day of the week.
For example, if you check the box next to Start up or wake, choose Monday from the drop down menu, and change the time to 8:00 AM, your computer will power on every Monday before you get to work. Check the second box and choose Shut Down from the menu.
Select Friday from the second drop down menu and enter the time 6:00 PM. Now your Mac will turn itself off after you leave work Friday evening but will be powered on and ready for you when you get back Monday morning.
When creating a schedule to power on your Mac, if you’re using a laptop, it will need to be plugged into a power source in order to work.
