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Reviewed by Lisa Blohm, PhD, MSN, RN

In this article

Struggling with tired eyes at the office or school and in need of a little pick-me-up? What better way to boost your senses than with a powerful essential oil?! The best essential oils for focus and concentration are just an arm’s reach away — which means the calm mental clarity and motivation you seek is closer than you might think!

Did you know the use of essential oils dates back to at least 3000 BC in ancient Egypt? If you’re new to aromatherapy, in a nutshell, essential oils are concentrated plant extracts that provide various mental, emotional, and physical health benefits. There are nearly 100 commonly-used essential oils out there — in this article, we’re going to discuss some of the most common essential oils for focus, motivation, and energy enhancement.

Move over mental fatigue and welcome focused productivity!

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Best essential oils for focus and concentration

Here at The Healthy Place, we love matching individuals with natural options to combat their daily stressors and concerns. It can be such a drag to muddle through your day feeling unmotivated. One of the natural tools we love to recommend is aromatherapy! That’s why we’re so excited to offer you this list of the eight best essential oils for focus.

Let’s start with single oils! 

Rosemary

Rosemary is one of those essential oils you want near your desk when you’re prepping for a big test or career opportunity. It offers a stimulating jumpstart to mental activity and alertness. Recent research shows it helps prevent the breakdown of acetylcholine, a chemical in the brain that’s essential for concentration and memory.

Fun Fact: The healing benefits of the herb rosemary were discovered in the 16th century — before then, its benefits were limited to the kitchen! Paracelsus, a German-Swiss physician and botanist, uncovered its abilities to help strengthen the body by supporting the liver, brain, and heart. Thanks, Paracelsus!

Rosemary Essential Oil for Focus and Concentration:

• Stimulates brain wave activity*
• Boosts memory*
• Enhances focus* 

Peppermint 

When your level of productivity is held back by anxiety or brain fog, peppermint essential oil is an excellent ally! It’s a significantly complex essential oil, easing stress and anxiety while also promoting energy and focus. Its refreshing aroma is fresh and cool, and calmly tells your brain to chill out and focus on the task at hand!’

Fun Fact: Did you know that peppermint essential oil’s fierce minty smell works as a natural bug repellent?! It’s true! Soaking cotton balls in peppermint essential oil placed around the home will deter uninvited ants or spiders. Poof! Bug problem gone — so you can go back to concentrating on what matters most. 

Peppermint Essential Oil for Focus and Concentration:

• Stimulates mental clarity*
• Promotes alertness*
• Boosts energy* 

Lemon

Lemon essential oil is an exceptional mood booster, and it’s not hard to see why! Part of the citrus family, lemon reminds us of sun and summer and everything bright. Its uplifting aroma is great at busting through mental roadblocks that have you feeling stuck so you can pierce through your endeavors with a positive outlook. Lime essential oil is a great motivator too!

Fun Fact: Lemon essential oil (and lemons in general) have been a go-to in Ayurvedic medicine for more than 1,000 years. Sourced from the fruit peel of the lemon plant, it’s bursting with healing plant compounds that help boost immunity, ease coughs, and soothe irritated skin. Add it to your household cleaner for a cheerful, mood-boosting disinfectant!  

Lemon Essential Oil for Focus and Concentration:

• Refreshing and energizing aroma*
• Promotes mental clarity*
• Enhances focus* 

Basil

Basil Linalool is an exceptionally calming essential oil that helps promote a clear, focused mind. Like a lighthouse in the mist, it clears through brain fog with a powerful, refreshing aroma. Do you deal with distractions and endless ‘mind chatter?’ Basil sets you up for success by helping you settle down so you can concentrate on one task at a time.

Fun Fact: From insect repellent to cough suppressant, basil essential oil has a plethora of uses. Clear up acne-prone skin, revive dull, brittle hair, relieve indigestion, and more. It’s one of the best essential oils for focus and concentration as it features unique neuron-regulation properties. 

Basil Essential Oil for Focus and Concentration:

• Promotes a clear, focused mind*
• Uplifting mood-booster*
• Boosts memory retention* 

Sweet Orange 

When searching for essential oils that help you focus, this one’s a must-have! Citrus scents like sweet orange, lemon, or lime are some of the best ways to boost focus and concentration. Meanwhile, they also act as cleansers, boost the immune system, and enhance your mood, too! If you don’t have it already, sweet orange essential oil is sure to become one of your favorite staples.

Fun Fact: The orange has been a symbol of good luck and fortune in Chinese culture for thousands of years. Its sweet citrus scent promotes a calm yet cheerful and uplifting environment and can even help balance an anxious, fast pulse rate!

Sweet Orange Essential Oil for Focus and Concentration:

• Uplifts and brightens 
• Clears anxious thoughts
• Enhances focus

Vetiver

Vetiver is one of the best essential oils for mental clarity and focus. What makes it so special? It’s pure magic when it comes to helping calm ‘mind chatter.’ Like frankincense, vetiver is extremely grounding, so if you find it hard to sit and complete tasks, diffusing or inhaling its woodsy aroma will help your attention remain focused — and calm.

Fun Fact: Vetiver essential oil is distilled from the aged roots of the vetiver plant. A 2016 study noted its ability to improve brain function. It literally helps your brain feel more awake and honed into what’s in front of you!  

Vetiver Essential Oil for Focus and Concentration:

• Supports emotional balance 
• Boosts mental alertness
• Improves brain function

Best essential oil blends for focus and concentration

Brain aid

Do you feel like your brain is stuck in a rut at times? Brain Aid to the rescue! This powerful brain-supporting essential oil blend clears through afternoon slumps and sets your brain up for success. Your brain is naturally amazing, but even the most intelligent person needs scheduled breaks in the same way a pro athlete needs to rest from workouts. When the workload is overwhelming, we recommend setting a timer for two minutes and breathing in the synergistic scents. 

Help yourself clear through brain fog, enhance memory, and improve concentration. Brain Aid is an exciting blend of grapefruit, bergamot, palmarosa, juniper, basil, lemon, rosemary, peppermint, may chang, and star anise.

*Note, Brain Aid is estrogenic and should not be used in pregnancy, breastfeeding, endometriosis, and estrogen-sensitive cancers. Avoid frequent use in homes with adolescent children.

Brain Aid Essential Oil Blend for Focus and Concentration:

• Accelerates focus
• Improves concentration
• Helps boost memory function

Study time

Study Time (formerly known as A+ Attention) is a KidSafe formula designed especially with the little ones in mind. From chores and sit-down homework assignments to more intense test-taking, it’s loved by parents for its ability to promote concentration at times when kids have a difficult time staying focused. And kids love it too!

Study Time is a blend of focus-promoting petitgrain, bergamot, cedarwood, grapefruit, lavender, and vetiver essential oils. It offers a clean burst of herbal aroma with a sweet, woody undertone.

Study Time KidSafe Essential Oil Blend for Focus and Concentration:

• Improves focus time for school or at home
• Helps ease restless energy
• Promotes memory retention

Our top list of essential oils for focus and concentration

Want a quick go-to list of all of the best essential oils for mental clarity? Here you go!

* Indicates KidSafe essential oils (essential oils that are safe to use with children under 10 years of age).

How to use essential oils for focus and concentration

There are many safe and effective ways to use essential oils for focus and concentration. Here are some of our favorite idea:

• Topically: Want to break through mental roadblocks fast? Add a brain-boosting essential oil to a carrier oil at 2-5% dilution, and apply to your pressure points (temples, crown of your head, behind your ears, base of your neck, chest, or inner wrist).
  
  The natural plant essence is quickly picked up by the bloodstream and delivered to your brain for ultimate focus and concentration power! 

You can easily make your own roller ball for on-the-go pick-me-ups! 

• Inhalation: Inhaling essential oils is one of the easiest and best ways to improve your mood and concentration! You can take a few deep breaths straight from the essential oil bottle or add 5-10 drops to a personal inhaler to break through mental fatigue and restlessness. 
  
• Diffuse: Diffuse a few drops of your favorite focus-enhancing essential oil or essential oil blend to create an environment that is stress-free and energized.
  
  See below for a few recipe ideas! 

Aromatherapy for focus recipes

Other ways to help you focus

In addition to essential oils and supplements, here some ways you can overcome mental fatigue and reach the focus you desire:

• Eliminate distractions: Clear the clutter, both digitally and physically. Sound like too daunting of a task? Even 5-10 minutes can do wonders and help your brain feel less bogged down by your surroundings. Pay attention to your environment and make adjustments as needed (whether it’s clutter, closing the door, or asking your noisy coworker — or child — to quiet down!
  
  Getting rid of distractions can seem easier said than done. Make a to-do list, stick to it, and just do the best you can.
  
• Don’t overdo the coffee: Too much caffeine at once can make your brain feel overstimulated, which will make it very hard to focus! Instead of drinking your coffee undiluted all at once, consider breaking up your caffeine intake throughout the day in smaller doses. Adding fats to your coffee (for example, butter or whole milk) or eating a healthy snack around the same time can help prevent nerve exhaustion.
  
• Take regular breaks: If your ability to focus affects your joy and happiness, it might be time to reconsider how you manage your time. Consider time blocking your calendar or implementing a system like the Pomodoro Technique. Your body and brain deserve regular, short breaks and perform better with them!

• Practice mindfulness: No, we’re not advocating you book a ticket to Bali and dedicate yourself to three months of silent meditation. (Though we wouldn’t tell you no, either!) The kind of mindfulness we’re talking about here is moment-to-moment awareness. If you’re prone to daydreaming, simply catch the distracting thoughts as they come.
  
  Meditation, breathing, and yoga are great ways to incorporate mindfulness into your life and come with more benefits than one!
  
• Prime your body: Your brain and body are only going to be able to do the best with what you give them. Are you going on less than 7 hours of sleep at night or fueling yourself with processed foods throughout the day? If so, it’s time to consider some changes. Staying hydrated, not skipping meals, eating a healthy diet, and getting adequate sleep can go a long way in your ability to focus and concentrate! 

Choose your essential oils for attention and focus

What’s on your must-try wish list when it comes to essential oils for attention and focus? Is it citrus (like lemon or lime), herbaceous (basil or rosemary), or a root or resin-like vetiver or frankincense? Each of these memory-boosting oils produces calm focus and the perfect invigorating aroma to motivate you to get things done.

Nobody likes to feel distracted or unproductive but sometimes life can be challenging to deal with, especially in a focused manner. If you’re on the hunt for more than just aromatherapy for concentration, you’ve come to the right place.

Here at The Healthy Place, we offer plenty of supplement options to treat your distraction at its core. Get in touch with a Wellness Consultant by clicking on the LiveChat feature (bottom right-hand corner of the website). Feel free to call or send us an email too! We are here to help!

Cautions: Do not use essential oils undiluted on skin. Some essential oils are not safe for children ages 10 and younger. Keep out of reach of children. If pregnant, consult your doctor before use. We do not recommend the ingestion of essential oils.

Please Be Advised: The International Federation of Aromatherapists does not recommend that Essential Oils be taken internally unless under the supervision of a Medical Doctor who is also qualified in clinical Aromatherapy. All cautions listed for individual oils do not include those cautions from ingestion.