For myself, I find I can easily get in the zone for work, while other times my mind wanders easily. I use essential oils to focus during those times when productivity might not come as naturally. For me, Friday afternoon is a classic time when my brain is easy to drift. During times like these, I pull out a couple of oils to either rub on my wrists or pop into my diffuser to help get me back into the zone. Does this sound like you at all? I imagine so, I’ve never met anyone who has a 100% productivity mindset for every single minute of the workday.
One of the wonderful things about essential oils is you can use them in your work from the home office, or your workspace office. Unlike perfume, essential oils don’t bother or cause harm to as many folks, but if you have an open space office I’d suggest chatting to co-workers first. I’ve been blessed with closed spaces and offices so this is something I can control easily.
If you’re someone who is always on the go for their work, as some of my teacher friends! I suggest looking into making rollerballs, or jewelry so you can wear the essential oils and smell them as you run around doing your tasks.
I use Revive Essential Oils for all my oils as I trust their brand and the science behind their oils. If you’re interested in Revive essential oils click here for a free 10$ gift card off your first $50 purchase!
Recommended items for essential oils – check out my must-have guide here!

Rosemary
Ah, Rosemary. I love Rosemary, I find it such a staple in my essential oils routines. Rosemary helps to increase and promote alertness and focus which is crucial when needing a productivity boost. Rosemary is also known for helping improve memory and helping with concentration, it’s a very stimulating essential oil! Overall, if you’re looking for an oil that can perk up your alertness and help you focus grab some Rosemary. Rosemary blends nicely with lavender if you don’t like it on its own.
Rosemary can be used aromatically, topically, and internally. I’ve never taken Rosemary internally, so I wouldn’t suggest that but if it’s interesting to you I would research it first before taking it internally. Topically is one of my favorites, I put it alone or with lavender into a rollerball, and I dilute the rollerball with coconut oil. I use the rollerball over my temples, and wrists as needed.
You can diffuse Rosemary to help with mental focus for longer periods of time, so let’s say you Friday afternoon! Again, I blend this sometimes with lavender or all on its own. I add 3-5 drops, depending on if I’m blending it.
Essential Oils for Focus
Peppermint & Coffee Essential Oils Blend
This blend of essential oils, I use most often in the mornings, almost every day! It’s a blend of Peppermint, Coffee, and Vanilla. I use this in a diffuser only, and it’s warming while helping me become alert in the morning. Peppermint is a stimulating oil, it awakens your mind and keeps you alert. Coffee is similar to stimulating alertness and increasing concentration. Putting those two together is powerful, it’s a lot! This is why I pair it nicely with some vanilla, which adds warmth to the blend. Vanilla is also stimulating but has a milder tone.
As I mentioned, I diffuse this most morning and do 3 peppermints, 2-3 coffee, and 1-2 vanilla. I do mix it up as sometimes I like more of a coffee scent, whereas other times I want the warmth of vanilla.

Wild Orange
Wild Orange – what a bold scent! Take the cap off the bottle and bam it’s like dozen oranges coming at you. Orange essential oils are a strong scent, and it you aren’t a fan of citrus scents I would not recommend this. I adore oranges so for me this is a great match. Wild Orange essential oil is great for improving your mood and energizing you. I can not smell wild orange and not feel my mood instantly improve!
If you’re having one of those sluggish days, citrus scents are a great match they can instantly uplift you and can help bring some energy to your mind and your body! Wild Orange I love to have it in my water, I take it internally with an emulsifier. Wild Orange can be taken internally, aromatically, and topically. With all citrus scents, you need to be aware that they are phototoxic which means avoid the sun for 12 hours after you apply it to your body. For this reason, I use it mainly with essential oils and jewelry.
Wild orange can be diffused with lots of different oils, it can be blended with peppermint and bergamot. lemon, frankincense, and lemongrass. If diffusing I would suggest 1-2 drops of orange and blend it with one of the suggestions above. Orange is a powerful scent so I don’t encourage putting 4-5 drops directly into your diffuser, might be a bit too much!
Grapefruit
Ah, another citrus scent. Can you tell I’m a Citrus fan? They’re just so wonderful for helping to stimulate your mind and promoting alertness! Grapefruit, it’s similar to orange in benefits but smells very different. I find it a bit less powerful, but others disagree. Grapefruit is a good stimulating scent, that helps promote concentration and motivation. Grapefruit is a great essential oil for focus. I find it’s a great scent for the afternoon when you need that final push of energy, that’s when I bust out grapefruit. Instead of going for a coffee, or energy drink, next time try smelling some grapefruit essential oils!
Grapefruit essential oils can be aromatically, internally, and topically. Like Orange, grapefruit is a phototoxic oil so avoid the sun for 12 hours after using it on the skin. Grapefruit is another that I use in my water, it tastes wonderful and I use an emulsifier and read up on how to do it safely, I encourage the same if you’re interested. Grapefruit can be worn on jewelry, or used with a rollerball.
Again, if diffusing I encourage blending with other scents as grapefruit alone can be quite powerful. I would suggest blends with Lemon, Peppermint, Geranium, Ylang Ylang, Lime, and Lemongrass.

Lemon and Peppermint
Lemons and Peppermint – sounds intense right?! It is lovely and honestly, they complement each other very well. Lemon is a wonderful scent that is purifying as well as energizing, both something all of our workspaces needs sometimes! Peppermint as mentioned above is stimulating and helps boost concentration. These together help combat that drifting mind, staring out the window and counting down the minutes until you leave. These scents together really help refresh a space as well as your mind. This blend is for a diffuser only and is perfect for any time of day.
For this diffusion, I use 3 lemons and 2 peppermints. You can play with the amounts of each based on your preferences but it really is a wonderful scent to have to go in your space.
Cedarwood
Now I’ve gone on and on about stimulating scents, Cedarwood is a very different scent to promote productivity. Cedarwood essential oil mainly helps to soothe and relax your mind, it helps to promote and encourage confidence and your self-esteem. Sometimes when a task seems daunting, or I’m doubting my own skills Cedarwood is a scent that helps put those feelings at ease as I breathe it in. Cedarwood overall makes you feel an overall sense of wellness and calm.
I don’t use cedarwood too often myself, but I have colleagues who use it quite often given their need for calmness to be productive. Cedarwood is able to be used aromatically and topically. Topically you can massage it with carrier oil into your chest or temples. Aromatically you can diffuse a couple of drops all on its own. You can blend it if you want but I find it’s a great stand-alone essential oil.

Frankincense
Frankincense, as I mentioned in my other essential oils post this oil can do it all! If there’s one oil to own it is likely Frankincense, it has so many benefits. Where do I even start? Well, I’ll focus today on productivity. So Frankincense overall helps provide relaxation and grounding to your mind, it helps to reduce stress and soothe your mind in the process. Give this scent a couple of sniffs and you’ll feel at peace. Like Cedarwood this scent is good for helping calm and relax the mind to get ready for your next task.
Frankincense (Frank) can be used aromatically, internally (some frankincense makes), and topically. Personally, I encourage and promote aromatically for this scent, I don’t use it internally or topically but you can. For topically make sure to use a carrier oil and massage into tense areas of the body.
For me, I pop Frank in the diffuser with just a couple of drops, usually 3 and it helps relax and center my mind. Frankincense can be mixed with other blends, however, it’s a good stand-alone scent and I prefer it like that. If you’re looking to blend it I suggest Peppermint, Tangerine, Orange, Ylang Ylang, Grapefruit, and Lime.
In my blog I also chat about how to use essential oils for menstrual pain relief, improving sleep, and reducing anxiety!
I hope this post has helped provide a couple of suggestions or ideas on how you can use essential oils for focus, motivation, stimulation, and concentration while in your workspace!
I use Revive Essential Oils for all my oils as I trust their brand and the science behind their oils. If you’re interested in Revive essential oils click here for a free 10$ gift card off your first 50$ purchase!
Talk Soon!



It’s really good to read a post about oils that isn’t just all about lavender. Some scents and sorts I hadn’t heard of in here. Definitely lots of food for thought.
Oh…..I love grapefruit and cedarwood scent. They are so refreshing and calming. Thank you for sharing this.
This was a very interesting post! I never thought about using essentials oils to promote oroductivity! I have some of them, but should really invest in more, like that wild orange and rosemary!
I love essential oils but have never thought about their benefits to promote productivity! Super interesting xx
I’m always intrigued to learn more about essential oils so this was really interesting to read xx
Great post! Peppermint is my fav for everything. I find that it keeps me alert and focused! I also love peppermint when I’m not feeling 100%. Lavender is my fav to diffuse for a relaxed weekend or weekday night. Thanks for sharing xx
Lynn | https://www.lynnmumbingmejia.com
I love Frankinsesne. It smells so nice and I love having this scent in my Ike especially during Christmas time.
I love essential oils 😀 this recommendations are great
Thanks for sharing
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I love peppermint tea, and so oil would be so cool too! Thank you for the recommendations, great post. I need to try some of these, particularly as I get busier and need to improve my productivity x
Wonderful post Alex! There are some day I really need the extra help being productive. I wouldn’t have even thought to use essential oils, but now I will. I love the idea of blending peppermint, coffee and vanilla! I can’t wait to give it try!
Thanks for sharing!
Thank you! I’m glad you enjoyed the post and it helped provide some ideas of different oils for you to use! 🙂
Grapefruit & cedarwood are lovely scents, glad you enjoyed them! Thanks for reading and commenting 🙂
Thanks Simona – essentials oils/aromatherapy is so powerful and amazing for helping with productivity and focus. Wild orange is easily one of my favourite – rosemary is so wonderful. I hope they help you next time your needing a boost of energy! Thanks for reading and commenting 🙂
Wonderful to hear you love essential oils – I do hope they have you with productivity next time you need it 🙂 Thanks for reading and commenting.
Great to hear – thanks for reading and commenting 🙂
Peppermint is absolutely wonderful, I definitely would say it’s one I order often as I go through it so quick! I’m glad to hear Peppermint and Lavender really help with relaxation and alertness. Thanks for reading and commenting 🙂
Wonderful to hear, Frankincense is a powerhouse essential oil! Thanks for reading and commenting.
Wonderful to hear – thanks for reading 🙂
Peppermint tea is definitely a tea I have daily, I even sometimes add a drop of peppermint EO. Wonderful to hear this post was informative and I hope they do help with increasing productivity! Thanks for reading and commenting.
Thanks Tiffany – Yeah, I hear ya me too! I do hope essential oils can help with giving a boost when needed, Peppermint, coffee and vanilla is one of my favourite blends, I hope you like it too! Thanks for reading 🙂
I have never heard of this Peppermint and Coffee blend, but I love the sound of the two scents together! Rosemary and cedar-wood as pure essences are also favorites of mine.
Thanks for sharing!
It’s heavenly, definitely a blend I use when I need to get stuff done! Oh those are two lovely favourites to have – thanks for reading.
Wow, awesome post. Essential oils are so wonderful. This post was very informative and makes me feel to reinvest in some essential oils again. I have to get a better diffuser though, mine sucks.
I live in Florida and I love the smell of Oranges. I had know idea the benefits of essential oils that smell like oranges. That’s amazing’s.
I’m so glad to hear you found this post informative and it sparked your interest in essential oils again! Getting a good diffuser is so great, feel free to check out my essential oil accessories post for some recommendations.
I’m so glad to hear this helped you with understanding the powerful benefits of citrus and our productivity! I’m so jealous you’re in Florida with so many oranges, sounds like a dream to me!
Lemon is always a good fragrance. Interesting post.
It’s honestly one of my all-time favourites Jamie! I’m glad you enjoy it and I hope these scents can help you with focusing!