I think that simply being aware of how many, where and when one smokes is half the battle to quitting.

3 days ago I went to bed and thought, "Ok, it's been 8 weeks now since breaking my ribs and therefore as I promised myself to attempt to quit again, now is the time".

The following day I didn't attempt to cut down but instead simply made sure that I didn't empty the ashtray all day. At the end of the day I counted 16 butts. Once I knew what my daily quoter had built up to I had something to go by in the fight to cut down.

Day 2, I didn't attempt to cut down but being aware all day that I was going to cut down made me conscious of every time I went to roll a cigarette. Too often we reach for a ciggie without thinking and to make matters worse we smoke it without even being aware that we are smoking. Especially when on the comp, reading or watching TV. So being aware of every time I started to roll a ciggie my next thought was, do I really want this at this time?? NO!! I will make a cup of tea in a minute and have a ciggie with that.

Doing that I ended up smoking only 12 that day. Cutting down by 4 with no feelings of depriving myself was great I thought.

Day 3, exactly the same, until it came to late at night and I ended up in a chatroom yacking to a friend. That cost me the 4 cigs I had lost the day before. I ended up smoking 16 again that day. Why, because I was so busy yacking away that I was rolling fags like there was no tomorrow. I had stopped being aware of when I was rolling them, being too interested in reading the screen from my friends gossip.

Today Day 4 and I am doing fantastically. I looked at the clock at 4pm and I had only smoked 4 cigarettes. I have no idea why it's only been 4. I can't even remember what I have been doing today to stop me thinking about rolling up. Weird!!! Of course the draw back of looking at the clock and realising that I had only smoked 4 cigarette has made me think of having another one. That one sits in the ashtray beside me waiting yet to be lit.