Quit Smoking Fast: A Personalized Approach That Works

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Want to quit smoking fast? This method focuses on mental strategies and nicotine replacement to help you break free from cigarettes without dragging the process out for months. How I took control and quit for good.

I’m not the man who smoked 100 cigarettes a day and quit overnight. I’m the one who couldn’t help himself. 

There had been a couple of unsuccessful attempts, the longest lasting six weeks. Unfortunately, a crisis led me to rip off the nicotine patch I was wearing and light up again. It wasn’t long before I was back on three to five packs a day.

I asked my doctor why the patches hadn’t worked for me. He said that stretching out the process to the recommended eight to 12 weeks was designed to fail. If you want to quit smoking with NRT (nicotine replacement therapy), you have to do it within a couple of weeks.

He was right—but it would be some 10 years before I put it to the test.

In the meantime, I experimented with nicotine gum.

I Couldn’t Function Without Nicotine

Smoking was more than a habit. It was a compulsion. It dictated everything.

The Workplace Smoking Trap

At the time, I worked as a waiter in various establishments. For most jobs, having a cigarette was the only valid excuse to take a break.

But while employed by a hospitality staffing agency, breaks of any kind were forbidden on most placements, which meant going for up to eight hours without a cigarette. To overcome withdrawal—irritability, frustration, jaw clenching, and being rude to customers—I chewed 4mg nicotine gum. Of course, this led to binge smoking after the shift was over.

Smoking and Creativity—A False Sense of Focus

Apart from waiting tables, I was also writing for a living. But I couldn’t focus properly without smoking; every time I needed to pause and think, I lit up. That meant one cigarette for every couple of sentences.

Studying was no different. Every assignment required a steady supply of tobacco. It was an essential part of the intellectual process.

Due to endless cigarette breaks, even simple chores like cleaning my tiny flat could take an entire day. Nowadays I get it done within an hour.

Why I Started Smoking

Smoking fascinated me from an early age. Every man I wished to emulate was a smoker, whether my father, my older brother, the Marlboro man, or several very masculine celebrities of the time. And smoking was everywhere—back then, you could even light up in the doctor’s office.

With everyone in our household consuming tobacco, I guess I’d been a passive smoker from birth. During my teens, I persuaded my father to teach me how to smoke cigars and the pipe—to my mind, it was something every man should be able to do. Soon after, I moved on to cigarettes. For me, it symbolized manhood and independence.

During the course of the next three decades, cigarettes became an integral part of my identity. Smoking was woven into every aspect of my life. I couldn’t even get out of bed in the morning without lighting up.

And whenever I talked about quitting, people would laugh. The idea of me without a cigarette was absurd.

Why I Quit Smoking

As previously implied, when I started smoking, it was more or less expected of a normal adult.

At one of my first interviews as a teen, I was offered a cigarette by my prospective boss, which I considered a huge compliment. I therefore didn’t decline like a good boy; I accepted and got the job. As it turned out, he and his team were all chain-smokers, so it was a good move on my behalf. I was a perfect fit within this group of grown men, of which I was very proud to be part.

But by 2012 tobacco was becoming increasingly taboo, not to mention expensive. It was setting me back a few hundred each month. If I wanted to leave my job as a waiter to pursue a full-time witing career, I’d have to give up the cigarettes

But it seemed like a pipe dream. As ridiculous as thinking I’d get myself on the New York Times Bestseller List. It wasn’t going to happen.

Still, I had been using nicotine gums to get through long, tobacco-free periods at work. Why shouldn’t they help me quit altogether?

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How I Quit Smoking Fast

This is the method I devised based on previous experience and expert advice.

See if you can customize it according to your habit and its underlying triggers.

1. Clear Your Schedule—Make Quitting Your Only Focus

The first thing I did was quit my job waiting tables. I already had another source of income, so this option was open to me. I’d otherwise have taken vacation.

NOT SMOKING was the only thing I was going to focus on, even if it meant lying on my sofa all day and ignoring everything else.

2. Identify Your Favorite Cigarettes

On day one, I discovered I was able to get out of bed without lighting up—it was surprisingly easy. But quitting the half a pack I consumed with my first coffee of the day was another matter. This was the best part of my morning routine.

I therefore decided to tackle these cigarettes last.

3. Use Mental Tactics

But I didn’t make it easy for myself. Instead of scrolling through social media whilst puffing away each morning, I studied lists of famous smokers who had died from various smoking-induced ailments, including COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), aortic aneurysm, and cancer of the lungs, esophagus, pancreas, and throat.

It made me want to quit immediately, but that was out of the question. Those morning cigarettes would be the last to go.

4. Use a Nicotine Replacement Therapy

Because patches are less flexible, they’re unsuitable for this method of smoking cessation. My choice was gum, which helped with my jaw clenching and allowed me to smoke after an hour of chewing if I felt the need. Other options are lozenges, inhalers, sprays, and microtabs.

After showering, shaving, and cleaning my teeth, I took my first 4mg gum. The plan was to get through the rest of the day without smoking. I would nevertheless allow myself a cigarette if the craving became too strong.

5. Motivate Yourself to Quit With a Smoking Cessation Timeline

On the morning of the second day, I added a smoking cessation timeline to my reading material. From then on, I referred to this daily to monitor my progress. The longer I went without a cigarette, the more health benefits I’d enjoy. This begins just 20 minutes after your last cigarette.  

I didn’t seriously think I’d get there back then, but I’m now only two years away from reducing my risk of heart disease to that of somebody who has never smoked.

6. Now It’s Time to Quit Your Favorite Cigarettes

It wasn’t long before the only remaining cigarettes were those I smoked with my morning coffee, which were down to three. These I eliminated one by one over three consecutive days.

To prevent a relapse, I pushed a nicotine gum into my mouth before getting out of bed each morning, chewing for forty-five minutes before drinking my coffee. This allowed me to get through a whole day without smoking.

It was during this stage that I left the house for the first time without a pack of cigarettes. It felt almost like stepping into the world unarmed—but I got through it.

This was a turning point—I had quit smoking. But I was still hooked on nicotine.

7. Quit Your Nicotine Replacement Therapy

Now came the next difficult step. Taking the advice of my doctor 10 years previously, I had to get off the gums as soon as possible.

I should mention that I was no longer taking them hourly as recommended but chewing for about three hours before replacing. Therefore, substituting with regular gum (Airwaves “cool cassis”) turned out to be easier than expected.

Just as I had done with cigarettes, I tapered down strategically, saving the morning gum before coffee for last.

This was my final step toward total freedom; I had now kicked the habit completely.

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Now You’ve Quit Smoking, Assess Your Gains

That’s basically it. I’ve now been smoke-free for 13 years and not once felt the urge to light up again.

During that time, I’ve noticed a significant ripple effect.

Smoking made me indifferent to good nutrition and exercise. Why bother caring for my body when I was poisoning it anyway? But once I quit, my perspective flipped. I began to make conscious choices that benefited my health rather than sabotaging it.

And because I was no longer harming myself, I became more confident about my future. Quitting freed up a few hundred dollars a month, which I invested. I’m now approaching the point where I work not because I have to, but because I want to.

Quitting is about taking personal responsibility. Anyone can light up a cigarette, but letting the habit go takes a real man.

© 2025, J. Richardson. All rights reserved.