I’ve recently read Cal Newport’s book “Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World”.

This book is all about removing distractions in your life in order to be able to spend long and uninterrupted periods of time focused on one thing.

Apart from being a really good book about how to stay focused, it also made me realised I had to quit smoking.

Addiction and deep work

In his book, Carl Newport is talking about addictions to social media and the way it prevents us doing uninterrupted focused work. This statement cannot be truer but there is one thing never mentioned in the book: “chemical addictions”.

Passing by the smokers area every day and joining several times a day, it is pretty obvious that a huge amount of knowledge workers have a chemical addiction (to nicotine at least).

In my opinion, a chemical addiction is an order of magnitude worse than addiction to social media. You’re tempted to check Reddit or Twitter but if you have to, you can postpone it easily. On the other hand, try to ask a smoker to hold for 3 or 4 hours to get something done first…

You can’t focus for a long time if you have a chemical addiction.

It seems pretty obvious but we are smoking without even realising the number of breaks we take in a day.

I’m not talking about a 5 -10 min break to go outside. I strongly believe time spent at your desk isn’t representative of your productivity. Actually, I’m convinced those breaks are required. Several breaks a day isn’t the issue.

I’m talking about the need to satisfy your addiction.

Before I quit smoking, I was taking a break roughly every hour, quickly going outside for my fix, taking barely 2 min. Over the day this is negligible right? Only ~20min lost in my day for well deserved time off. I need to give my brain some rest anyway!

You don’t choose when you take a break

Here’s is my biggest issue with smoking:

You can’t take a break when you want one. Nicotine controls your schedule.

Nicotine will tell you when you should take a break. This is disrupting your workflow. You have to accommodate your schedule to include “smoke breaks” between meetings or long tasks.

This kind of “break” is not relaxing. You get out, smoke and get back in. How does that make us more relaxed? It doesn’t! It is only about satisfying an addiction.

Uninterrupted work and cigarette can’t coexist.

I imagine that Cal Newport isn’t a smoker as addiction seems like one of the first things to tackle. If you have to stop what you are working on to smoke, how can you have uninterrupted workflow?

You will always be distracted, even if you can smoke inside. You will run out of cigarettes, lose your lighter or it will stop working, the ashtray will be full, e-cigarettes will leak… the list goes on.

Making sure you can consistently sustain a certain amount of nicotine through your day adds a significant mental load.

Smoking is stressful

Not only it is near impossible to truly focus while smoking, it also adds unnecessary stress.

The corner shop is about to close, you only have 2 cigarettes left and you drop everything to make sure you passed the door before closing time.

Going somewhere and realising you forgot your favorite drug instantly becomes a disaster and will get you late.

About to jump into a few hours meeting when you forgot to have one before and you won’t be able to focus.

Some smokers told me they’re smoking for stress relief. I’d argue smoking was adding unnecessary stress in my life.

How difficult was it?

Realising that long and uninterrupted periods of time would be beneficial to me was only the beginning of the journey.

As I was reading this book about “Deep work”, it became clear to me that smoking was a massive impediment to concentration.

This was a good start but it was just the first step. Now, I had to quit smoking.

How difficult can it be? It’s simple! You just have to stop having any kind of nicotine. I tried for a few days and it was painful and laborious.

I couldn’t help but think about it… and this is the moment I became fully aware of my addiction. I acknowledged it. It will be difficult to do this alone and I needed help.

I researched the topic the same way I’m driving any projects. What works well? Are there any well-recognised methods?

After a few days I’ve decided to read Allen Carr’s book “The Easy Way to Stop Smoking” and I didn’t smoke since I’ve finished it.

I won’t go much into details since the purpose of this book is pretty obvious. However, I can tell how well understood I felt while reading it and how the author drastically changed my perception of smoking from “I need it!” to “Why do I even waste my time smoking?”.

Those 2 books changed my life.

Timeline

Start reading “Deep work”.

Mostly curious, I didn’t expect much but I’ve seen many articles about it. I wanted to forge my own opinion.

Halfway through the book

Deep work seems to be more than a buzzword. I start to question how I am spending my time.

Experiment with “deep work session”

I would dedicate long periods of time to focus only on one thing.

I noticed I couldn’t spend more than 2 hours on something… because I had to get out and smoke.

When I would come back I would have lost the state of mind I was in before.

2 weeks holidays…

Still smoking and not working at all but I’m thinking about the consequences of those interruptions.

Decide to quit

I tried 2 days and realised how difficult it will be.

I bought nicotine substitute without success.

On the 3rd day, I realised I was truly hooked. Fully addicted. I knew I was doing it wrong.

Start reading Allen Carr’s book

Before reading this book, I felt really insecure. I was scared of the pain, the anxiety or the withdrawal symptoms while being deprived of nicotine. I was scared it would damage my work and thinking but I was willing to endure it. I knew this was necessary. Turned out I didn’t even have to go through such suffering.

Allen Carr claims this is the “easy” way… and it is.

I’ve read the book over 2 evening. Before I even finished it, I binned any items related to nicotine I had (cigarette, vape, gum, nasal spray…).

I realised I didn’t need it at all and cigarette never gave me anything. It’s just taking away.

I don’t smoke anymore

The most impressive part is that I really don’t miss it… at all. Whenever I’m going to a party, working on something stressful for extended periods of time or having a coffee on a terrasse.

Now I’m thinking about how great it is to be able to enjoy all those things without interruptions.

Conclusion

For a long time, I didn’t realise what I was doing to myself. Most ads or people against tobacco are talking about money and health. Looking at smokers reactions, this doesn’t seem to be effective. I’m offering a different point of view: quit smoking so you can focus on what matters.

I didn’t quit smoking because of health or money but to support my goal towards a stressless, productive and focused life.

I hope this article will have the same effect Cal Newport’s book had on me and you’ll start to realise smoking is a waste of time and effort.

My biggest excuse to keep smoking has always been the impact it would have on my work until I realised it was the opposite.

Once I realised I had to stop, Allen Carr’s book held its promise and today I’m free.