In step 1 (the fact gathering stage) you took notes and entered each day to a spreadsheet.
The next step is to analyze the spreadsheet, identifying the behavior patterns. There are 14 days of data on the spreadsheet. Start with the morning. Note down the time of morning you smoked your first cigarette, and what you were doing. This is important and will be the first habit to alter.
Like many smokers, your cigarettes generally are close by. Next to your bed, on a table, or in the kitchen. This is the first place you go. Perhaps you light your first cigarette of the morning, prepare your coffee, or just sit down right away to enjoy your cigarette. Today this is the first step to changing your automatic behavior patterns. You are aware that your morning routine is the same each day. Tonight when you go to bed, do not put your cigarettes in the normal place. Write down on a piece of paper “I will wake up tomorrow, make coffee, wake up the children and not reach for a cigarette“. Read this over 10 times before going to sleep. When falling to sleep, think about what you have read.
When sleeping, your subconscious will replay the note you read before turning off the light. This is the first step in reprogramming your natural daily habits. When you wake, the urge to grab a cigarette won’t be as strong as yesterday. You will wake up, go make coffee, wake the children, and not reach for a cigarette. This is the beginning of breaking your subconscious behavioral habits.
You will still record your smoking habits during this stage. Today you did not smoke a cigarette when first waking up. But you still had the first cigarette of the day. Note the time you smoked this cigarette and what you were doing. Each time you reach for a cigarette, think to yourself: “I changed my morning habit I can change this one.” Try to go longer between cigarettes during the day. If you smoke a cigarette every one to two hours, try to smoke every three to four hours. It is important to stop smoking 3 cigarettes today. Be aware of each cigarette you reach for.
Tonight when you go to bed, add one more line to your message. Select another time of the day to alter your habits. If you have to have a cigarette with your coffee, work on this habit tonight. Perhaps your note reads “I will wake up tomorrow, make coffee, wake up the children and not reach for a cigarette. I will not smoke a cigarette with my first cup of coffee.” Read this over 10 times before going to sleep. When falling to sleep, concentrate on these two lines. You will not smoke when waking up and you will not smoke with your coffee.
Continue this pattern for the next two weeks. Alter the time of day you smoke your first cigarette, the cigarette with coffee, and the after meal cigarette. If you smoke two packs of cigarettes each day, now you will smoke 2 cigarettes each day. The first day, you will stop smoking 3 cigarettes and each day after two weeks, you’ll cut down by 2 a day. By the end of 2 weeks, you will have gone from 40 cigarettes each day down to 12 to 15. The goal of this step is to slowly alter your thinking before bed, to eliminate one, two, or three cigarettes each day.
Your body is slowly adjusting new nicotine levels, the habits you have formed to pick up a cigarette at certain times each day. Awareness of your own behavior and habits is the key solution to altering and changing these habits. The next two weeks, if your goal is to smokeless each day, write your habits down on paper, read them before sleeping, and follow through. Step 3 will help you to continue altering your habits, and when you feel the urge to pick up a cigarette.