Best bet: Quitting on impulse.

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Smokers are often told the best way to nix their habit is to have a game plan, including a quit day and a quid strategy. But could that advice be counterproductive? In a recent study putting that question to the test, smokers who quit spontaneously without advance planning had a greater chance of succeeding than those who planned ahead. The results, published in the British Medical Journal, seem to flour traditional smoking cessation guidance. A professor of social and behavioral sciences at Boston University who examines tobacco control policies and smoking behavior, said the findings amke a lot of sense. Planned quit attempts are implemented gradually and thus the level of motivation is probably rather low. But these unplanned, sudden attempts probably reflect some sentinel even or great tension that precipitates a very high level of motivation to quit. And thus these tempts are mor successful. The study points to the need to focus on motivating smokers to want to quit. And there's been too much emphasis on promoting pharmaceutical aids to help people quit.