diff --git a/README.rst b/README.rst
index e4ec9ff..e5dad79 100644
--- a/README.rst
+++ b/README.rst
@@ -143,6 +143,17 @@ a new array.
     # redefine what is ignored by auto-notify
     export AUTO_NOTIFY_IGNORE=("docker" "man" "sleep")
 
+**Using a Whitelist to ignore commands**
+
+If you wish to use a whitelist approach instead of the default blacklist approach used by ``AUTO_NOTIFY_IGNORE``,
+you can do so by defining the environment variable ``AUTO_NOTIFY_WHITELIST`` with the elements you wish to
+allow ``auto-notify`` to track and send notifications for. NOTE: If ``AUTO_NOTIFY_WHITELIST`` is defined,
+then all the values in ``AUTO_NOTIFY_IGNORE`` are not used.
+
+::
+
+    export AUTO_NOTIFY_WHITELIST=("apt-get" "docker")
+
 Temporarily Disabling Notifications
 -----------------------------------
 
diff --git a/auto-notify.plugin.zsh b/auto-notify.plugin.zsh
index c44d04e..58820d6 100644
--- a/auto-notify.plugin.zsh
+++ b/auto-notify.plugin.zsh
@@ -61,13 +61,33 @@ function _is_auto_notify_ignored() {
     # Remove leading whitespace
     target_command="$(echo "$target_command" | sed -e 's/^ *//')"
 
-    for ignore in $AUTO_NOTIFY_IGNORE; do
-        if [[ "$target_command" == "$ignore"* ]]; then
-            print "yes"
-            return
-        fi
-    done
-    print "no"
+    # Remove sudo prefix from command if detected
+    if [[ "$target_command" == "sudo "* ]]; then
+        target_command="${target_command/sudo /}"
+    fi
+
+    # If AUTO_NOTIFY_WHITELIST is defined, then auto-notify will ignore
+    # any item not defined in the white list
+    # Otherwise - the alternative (default) approach is used where the
+    # AUTO_NOTIFY_IGNORE blacklist is used to ignore commands
+
+    if [[ -n "$AUTO_NOTIFY_WHITELIST" ]]; then
+        for allowed in $AUTO_NOTIFY_WHITELIST; do
+            if [[ "$target_command" == "$allowed"* ]]; then
+                print "no"
+                return
+            fi
+        done
+        print "yes"
+    else
+        for ignore in $AUTO_NOTIFY_IGNORE; do
+            if [[ "$target_command" == "$ignore"* ]]; then
+                print "yes"
+                return
+            fi
+        done
+        print "no"
+    fi
 }
 
 function _auto_notify_send() {
diff --git a/tests/test_is_auto_notify_ignored.zunit b/tests/test_is_auto_notify_ignored.zunit
index b678fa7..cb4f4fa 100644
--- a/tests/test_is_auto_notify_ignored.zunit
+++ b/tests/test_is_auto_notify_ignored.zunit
@@ -33,3 +33,30 @@
     assert $state equals 0
     assert "$output" same_as "yes"
 }
+
+@test 'is_auto_notify_ignored - AUTO_NOTIFY_WHITELIST disallowed' {
+    AUTO_NOTIFY_WHITELIST="foobar"
+
+    run _is_auto_notify_ignored "boom baz"
+
+    assert $state equals 0
+    assert "$output" same_as "yes"
+}
+
+@test 'is_auto_notify_ignored - AUTO_NOTIFY_WHITELIST allowed' {
+    AUTO_NOTIFY_WHITELIST="foobar"
+
+    run _is_auto_notify_ignored "foobar baz"
+
+    assert $state equals 0
+    assert "$output" same_as "no"
+}
+
+@test 'is_auto_notify_ignored - AUTO_NOTIFY_WHITELIST allowed with sudo' {
+    AUTO_NOTIFY_WHITELIST="foobar"
+
+    run _is_auto_notify_ignored "sudo foobar baz"
+
+    assert $state equals 0
+    assert "$output" same_as "no"
+}