Quit Day is what we call the day you stop smoking. For some, it can be a day of great importance, marked on the calendar and accompanied by solemn rituals. For others, Quit Day may be a circumstantial date, perhaps without planning, but rather as a consequence of being diagnosed with an illness, bad news, or a “sudden decision.” Both approaches are valid; what matters is making room for a new smoke-free life.

People who prepare in advance to quit smoking, and set a date on the calendar, can give Quit Day greater significance. In life we need rituals and special dates to break out of routine and to close some life stages and begin others. In the past, rites of passage into adulthood were celebrated; today we celebrate New Year’s, birthdays, retirement, or funerals, to name just a few. These acts help leave behind what one wants or needs to say goodbye to in one’s life, and to think about what other things one wants to bring into one’s future life.

Quitting smoking is, without a doubt, a hugely important life change, which, if you feel like it, you can ritualize with some kind of gathering, meal, celebration, or reward, as long as that activity doesn’t predispose you to smoke.

For Quit Day, we recommend some strategies that will be useful to make this step a firm and solid one. These strategies will also be useful in the days or weeks after Quit Day, so you can reuse them at any point in the process:

Remove from your surroundings and clean anything that reminds you of tobacco: ashtrays, lighters, full or empty packs, photos of you smoking, matches, rolling machines, promotional items… from home as well as from the car or any other place. We also suggest washing your clothes, perhaps even using a new detergent, with a different smell that helps you remember the change you’ve just undertaken. Air out the house and let freshness into your life. You can even take the opportunity to go to the dentist and get a cleaning or oral checkup that gives you that feeling of cleanliness and serves as an anchor, a bodily reminder. A deep clean can act as a tobacco repellent for a few days, similar to how, when you brush your teeth at night, you avoid eating after that.
Set goals day by day. For example: The goal is not to smoke today; tomorrow we’ll see. The farther in time you place the goal (never smoke again), the farther away the feeling of satisfaction and reward that comes from achieving the goal will be, and therefore motivation will be lower. Also, short-term goals are much more realistic and easier to achieve. It’s important to accumulate successes. That is, if you manage not to smoke today, you’ll have a slight feeling of success, since you’ve met the purpose you set that morning. We encourage you to accumulate the QuitNow milestones that unlock as the smoke-free days go by, because they will feed the experience of achievement which, in turn, will feed motivation, consolidate your commitment to stay firm and abstinent, and strengthen your self-esteem. If you set out to never smoke again in your life, and there is a relapse after 2 months, the feeling will be one of failure. In contrast, if you’ve been able to experience several feelings of success and different daily achievements, that process can be evaluated positively and, therefore, will be easier to resume. If the process and the relapse are defined merely as a failure, it will take more mental effort to restart.
Create a résumé of positive feedback. In the previous point we talked about the importance of feelings of achievement. In emotional terms, situations experienced as achievements tend to generate feelings of joy, and the need associated with joy is being able to share it with other people. Meet this need and share your achievements and milestones, both in the QuitNow community and outside it. Pay attention, and even write down in a notebook in résumé format (date and person) all the positive statements about you that you receive from the people in your environment or networks. It’s important to gather personal validation in these first days, and there is often a tendency to remember negative feedback more than positive. We suggest that you write down, throughout the day, everything positive that people say about you, whether it’s related to tobacco abstinence or has to do with any other aspect.
Establish new habits from the first day, a small routine that anchors abstinence to your life and your day-to-day and reminds you of the validity of your commitment to yourself: a brief shower outside its usual time slot, a different drink always at the same time, a different route to work, or carrying a meaningful object with you that works as an anchor (it’s an association between an object and the purpose).
Rearrange the furniture at home, buy new plants, paint a wall, hang new pictures, or create any other change in the décor or layout of the home that reminds you that you’re in a new phase. The context and environment should be part of that change. That way, we give life a new color, a different, fresh and novel look. Abstinence will be easier to maintain if it is accompanied and supported by other changes than if it is treated as an isolated movement separate from other areas of life.
If you have built associations between smoking and other activities, times of day, drinks, or foods, we recommend introducing different activities at those times. For example, after meals, brush your teeth immediately and, if possible, go for a walk. Or replace coffee or beer (alcohol reduces self-control) with another drink. Or, if you used to smoke at the bus stop, take the subway, etc.
If the people you live with smoke, you can ask them not to do it in your presence, or to do it outside the home.
If you can, lighten your work schedule a bit in the first few days. Avoid stress.
If you were filling in a consumption calendar as a way to prepare for abstinence, keep marking each day in green to signpost and visualize the tobacco-free days.
Write a goodbye letter to tobacco, in which you address the cigarettes directly, as if they were a person you are breaking up with. Describe the moments you lived, the good and the bad, and the reasons why you’re quitting. Thank them for their companionship, if you think it’s necessary. Let them know your reproaches, if you feel it’s appropriate. Accept ambivalence; this is a letter without censorship and without correction. You can talk about the relationship you’ve established with tobacco, since it may have become a central element in your life, present in important moments. It may also be good to refer to your own experiences, make explicit the need for change and for a break with the cigarette, and express grief and loss and expectations for the future. You may feel anger, sadness, ambivalence, joy, or fear. For example, you may feel afraid of living through an ordeal or of not being able to (how will I be able to live without tobacco? What happens if I fail? What can happen if I keep smoking?). It’s natural to feel different emotions, and it would also be natural if you don’t feel anything in particular, although normally, to move forward, you have to touch the emotions, since emotions allow us to identify dangers, bond with one another, love ourselves and others, defend ourselves, and, ultimately, make us human. Finally, the goal is to say goodbye to tobacco. You can reread this letter in difficult moments. Or burn it. Reading the letter in front of important people, for example, family, friends, or group therapy peers, often strengthens commitment. You can also put a stamp on it, and when it has been a month, or three, or six, or twelve, since Quit Day, mail it to yourself. If you’re still abstinent, receiving it in the mailbox will be a reason to celebrate. If there has been a relapse, it can be a way to motivate you for a new attempt.
Write a commitment contract with yourself, in which your name, ID document, date of birth, and the written commitment not to smoke anymore from the indicated date appear. In addition, we suggest that, if later you consider smoking again, you only do so after terminating, even temporarily, this contract in writing. For example, by adding a small statement according to which you exit the contract. The goal is for the commitment contract to have remained in effect for the entire period of abstinence, and for the relapse to occur within a framework of interruption of the contract. That will preserve the usefulness of the contract, if later you want to rethink that commitment. On the other hand, having to terminate the contract in writing makes relapse more uncomfortable and gives you more time to think it over, which will reduce impulsivity and may help avoid that relapse. You can sign the contract alone, or with a friend or family member, who should never have the role of control, but who can appear as a symbolic guarantor of that contract, and sign it with you. It’s a way to make the commitment a shared process.
Look for distractions for the mind: watch a movie, go for a walk, listen to music, draw, go to places where smoking is prohibited, etc.
Look for distractions for the body: breathing, sports, a cold shower, etc. For the mouth: breadsticks, cinnamon sticks, carrot sticks, gum, toothpicks, water (drinking plenty of water speeds up the elimination of nicotine), etc. For the fingers: pencils, paper clips, stress balls, etc. There are activities that you’ll be able to do better and better, such as breathing or exercising. Try doing deep breaths each morning, holding the air for a few seconds before letting it out.
Do activities that give you pleasure: try to live as hedonistically as possible. The body itself can be a source of pleasure: you can play with temperatures, textures, massages, or give more space to sexuality and introduce tasty foods, etc. We recommend avoiding alcohol and caffeine. This suggestion has to do with the fact that when you quit smoking you may have the feeling that you’re losing something in the realm of pleasure, although later we will explain that smoking is not pleasurable, but rather relieves withdrawal symptoms.

Many people have done it. You can too. It’s important for you to know two things about cravings to smoke: the first is that they are not forever; they lessen. The second is that a thought or a desire is not the same as behavior. Having the urge to smoke or thinking about smoking does not necessarily lead you to smoke. Those urges can be unpleasant, but they do not invariably lead you to the behavior of smoking.