Member-only story
The Smell of Success: How Scent Can Enhance Your Workdays
I’ve been thinking a lot about smells recently. Not just because I have a son on the cusp of teenagerhood. Have you noticed that certain scented shower gels make it easier to wake up happy? Or that some scents throughout the day can make it easier to focus?
Most of us know that the smell of lavender is calming, citronella keeps bugs at bay and baked bread can increase feelings of wellbeing and prompt us to spend more. So I got to wondering, which scents improve productivity, focus or creativity — if any? Can we use different aromas to hack our day for boosted creativity and productivity? It turns out, we can.
Our brains on fragrance
When a scent wafts up your nostrils, you transport it to the millions of sensory neurons at the back of your nose as you breathe in. Aroma molecules can each activate several different kinds of receptors, some fit these different receptors better than others.
The near-endless combination of ways in which odour molecules interact with our receptors is what enables us to differentiate between so many different scents. Each combination creates a complex neural code that is sent to the olfactory bulb as an electrical signal. Our olfactory system helps us place the scent as ‘fresh bread’ or ‘feet’. The smell information processed…
