In all the ways you have attempted to quit smoking, did you try cutting back gradually, over a period of days or weeks? Cutting back gradually allows you to wean your body of the addictive effects of nicotine. In addition you will take charge of your habit by smoking with specific purpose.

Here's how to make a gradual smoking cessation schedule for yourself:

1. Estimate the number of cigarettes you currently use per day. 2. Decide how many smokes you can reduce from your daily consumption. A good number to use is 2 per day. I will call this the Daily Reduction Number. 3. Divide #1 by #2. For example, if you smoke 50 cigarettes daily, divided by 2, you get the number 25. This is how many days it will take you to totally stop smoking. 4. On a piece of paper, on the left side write the number of days you calculated in step 3. For example, if your number of days was 15, write Day 15. Just below that write Day 14, Day 13, and so forth until you reach Day 1. 5. Starting from the bottom of the list (Day 1) write your Daily Reduction Number from step 2 above ("2" in our example). On the line for Day 2, add the Daily Reduction Number to the number on Day 1. In our example, you would write 4 on Day 2. On Day 3 you add the Daily Reduction Number to the result on Day 2. Continue adding until you add up to the top of your list of Days. You are only that many days away from being smoke free!

After taking the steps above you are now ready to gradually cut back on your cigarette smoking. Keep your "countdown plan" with you wherever you go. You may want to rubber band it to your pack of cigarettes.

Begin the plan by smoking the number of cigarettes on the beginning date of your plan. Every time you smoke a cigarette, put a check next to the current day. When the number of marks equals the number of cigarettes specified for that day, you are finished smoking until the following day. Take care not to smoke all your allotment early in the day.

Here’s a tip that will greatly improve your chances of success by eliminating cheating. Like most anything of value it takes some effort (but very little). At the beginning of day, count out the day's allotment of cigarettes and put them in a pack or bag. By visually keeping track of the number of cigarettes you have left for the day, you can better understand how to pace your smoking. By the way, if you get to the end of the day and have cigarettes remaining, don't add them to the next day’s allocation of cigarettes. Just pat yourself on the back for smoking less than you planned on.

Use the following formula to calculate your personalized quit plan:

(Typical Number of Cigarettes Smoked Each Day) ____ / ____ (Daily Reduction Number) = ____ days (for example 40 cigarettes / 2 cigarettes less per day = 20 days)

You can print this countdown chart for your own quit smoking plan:

Day 30 _____ Day 29 _____ Day 28 _____ Day 27 _____ Day 26 _____ Day 25 _____ Day 24 _____ Day 23 _____ Day 22 _____ Day 21 _____ Day 20 _____ Day 19 _____ Day 18 _____ Day 17 _____ Day 16 _____ Day 15 _____ Day 14 _____ Day 13 _____ Day 12 _____ Day 11 _____ Day 10 _____ Day 9 _____ Day 8 _____ Day 7 _____ Day 6 _____ Day 5 _____ Day 4 _____ Day 3 _____ Day 2 _____ Day 1 _____

The plan I have outlined above is just one variation of the smoking reduction method. Adjust the plan to suit your own situation, if this exact process doesn't fit for you.

Quitting smoking gradually can be an easy way to stop your smoking habit. By weaning yourself from the prison that is nicotine, and taking charge of your habit, you make quitting much more do-able. Begin your reduction plan today! Fred Kelley helps thousands of people to quit smoking each year at http://www.quitsmoking.com Smokers can find over 100 quit smoking articles, plus get quit smoking products, and get help at the quit smoking forum.