GottaKickit |
“We’re not going to tell anyone not to smoke, or spend a lot of time telling them why it’s a bad idea. Those are fine messages, but ignorance isn’t the problem any more. The problem is that cigarettes are hard to beat. You need to be serious, and you need to be smart.” — Nick Sullivan, inventor of GottaKickit |
Answered
Queries
Basics The fundamentals of GKi
What makes GottaKickit different?
Is GottaKickit the right plan for me?
Is there a free version of GottaKickit?
What other versions are there?
Details The practice and theory of GKi
How will my smoking rate change over time?
How does GottaKickit account for the time when I’m sleeping?
What if I’m in a meeting when it’s time to smoke?
What happens if I stray from the program?
Other systems Comparisons & interactions
But I’ve failed with other plans!
Shouldn’t I be able to quit cold turkey?
Should I use nicotine gum with GottaKickit?
Should I use nicotine patches with GottaKickit?
Using GottaKickit Hints and tips for GKi users
Why “Now smoking”? Where’s the time?
How are the “THEN” and “NOW” values calculated?
Basics The fundamentals of GKi
Q. What is GottaKickit?
A. GottaKickit is a method of achieving independence from cigarettes. The core of GKi is a software program for mobile devices such as the Apple iPhone. By following the program’s instructions, users are able to wean themselves from even the most powerful cigarette addiction with a minimum of inconvenience and discomfort.
Q. What makes GottaKickit different?
A. GottaKickit recognizes both sides of the complex relationship that link a smoker with the habit. It is designed to help you deal with both the physical and psychological aspects of cigarette addiction.
Unlike conventional programs, the essence of GottaKickit is not prohibition but controlled permission. With other programs, you must at some point make the difficult, even traumatic, choice to quit. To give it up. To deny yourself forevermore the pleasure, consolation, and self-affirmation of smoking.
GottaKickit is not about ‘quitting’. It’s about the transition to independence. Over a span of several months your cigarette intake will gradually diminish, at a pace controlled by you. In the end you will most likely stop smoking without undue fuss or difficulty, completely of your own accord and at a time of your own choosing. Until then, GottaKickit will keep you on the same steady path to independence.
Q. Is GottaKickit the right plan for me?
A. GottaKickit was designed as a practical self-administered solution to the challenging problem of ending a cigarette habit, but we don’t claim it’s the right approach for every person. If you’re at the stage of deciding on a program to help you stop smoking, we recommend that you read first our description of how to use GottaKickit, and second our brief review of the ideas that make it work. That should give you a good sense of how the plan will fit with your personality and lifestyle.
Those who do not already own an iPhone, iPod Touch or other GottaKickit-compatible device will need to consider that cost when evaluating the plan. Although we are committed to keeping our software prices affordable for all, there is nothing we can do about the price of hardware. On the plus side, these are cool devices in all sorts of ways, and less expensive by far than, say, a cigarette habit. If you're looking for a great reason to buy one, GottaKickit might be it.
Q. Is there a free version of GottaKickit?
A. Yes. GottaKickit Now, the version of GottaKickit for the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch, is free to download and install from the App Store. You can also use it free as long as you like without paying. As with the other versions, it is fully capable of helping you implement the GottaKickit plan. If you wish, you can move up to the full version of GottaKickit Now, which has some additional features, for a small fee. Click Upgrade to full version within the app to start the quick and easy upgrade process. Please see the following item for more information about GottaKickit versions.
Those who do not already own an iPhone, iPod Touch or other GottaKickit-compatible device will need to consider that cost when evaluating the plan. Although we are committed to keeping our software prices affordable for all, there is nothing we can do about the price of hardware. On the plus side, these are cool devices in all sorts of ways, and less expensive by far than, say, a cigarette habit. If you're looking for a great reason to buy one, GottaKickit might be it.
Q. What other versions are there?
A. GottaKickit has been released for two platforms: 1) the Apple iPhone family of devices (including the iPod touch); and 2) devices running the Google Android operating system (including the T-Mobile G1, also known as the HTC Dream). The software for the Apple devices is called GottaKickit Now. It can be downloaded and used for free. GottaKickit Now can also be upgraded from within the app for a small fee ($6.99 USD). The benefits of upgrading include three feature extensions: 1) adjustable “power level” for customizing the rate at which GKi tapers your smoking intake; 2) editable smoking history, allowing you to make adjustments and corrections; 3) five daily “advances” instead of just two. The app for Google Android, which sells for $4.99 USD, is substantially identical to that for Apple, with all features included; however, there is no free edition. Click here for information about the uses GottaKickit makes of particular Android features.
Details The practice and theory of GKi
Q. How will my smoking rate change over time?
A. Under the GottaKickit plan, your smoking rate — the number of cigarettes you smoke in a day — will decrease relatively quickly at first, and then much more slowly. If you smoke 25 cigarettes a day to begin with, here’s a graph showing your consumption over the next several months, assuming you to be following GottaKickit under the default Power Level:
Under GottaKickit, cigarette consumption decreases quite quickly at first then gradually slows down. By the 30-day mark, your intake of nicotine and other toxins is down to a fraction of the initial rate, and you are just setting out on the longer, even more important process of winding down your involvement with smoking at the psychological level. This phase of the plan continues as long as you require.
Q. How does GottaKickit account for the time when I’m sleeping?
A. Actually, no special handling is needed for your hours of sleep. At bedtime, GKi will be counting down to the next smoke time, as usual. The countdown will typically complete while you are sleeping. When you awake, GKi will tell you that it’s time to smoke; you can do so as soon as you like. Remember that one of the ways GKi works is by tapering down your nicotine level as smoothly as possible, so the best and simplest approach is just to smoke as soon as you practically can after it gives you the OK. However, if your day will be such that you have to time your smoking breaks carefully, another option would be to time the first cigarette strategically so that the remainder will best fit into your schedule (in combination with the Advance button as required).
Q. What happens if I’m in a meeting when it’s time to smoke?
A. What makes GottaKickit tick is the fact that you are substituting an external variable — the time — for the host of other triggers that might have come into play to determine when you would next smoke. In this way, the behavioral associations with smoking are being systematically weakened at the same time as the dependence on nicotine is gradually reduced, while the load on your willpower is kept to a minimum. However, sometimes — perhaps often — your scheduled GKi smoking time may arrive only to find you stuck in a meeting, or on an airplane, or at the church getting married — but for whatever reason unable to smoke.
Your simplest course in such circumstances is, as it has always been, to wait until the opportunity comes around, then smoke. The rules of GottaKickit are that you can’t ‘enter’ a smoke until you have lit the cigarette in real life, and only then does the countdown to the next cigarette begin. That meeting, flight or marriage can therefore set back your entire day’s smoking schedule, causing you to possibly miss cigarettes that the plan does not allow you to make up.
Often, you can smooth things out by a combination of thinking ahead and using the Advance button on the Main Screen. The Advance button doesn’t change your smoking schedule for the rest of the day, but it does bring your very next cigarette 15 minutes nearer. You can have up to five Advances in a day, divided up however you want — you could even apply them all to one cigarette. The slight extra flexibility afforded by the Advance feature, coupled with your own determination to succeed, should get you through even an awkward day without mishap.
Q. What happens if I stray from the program?
A. Breaking free of a cigarette addiction is like walking a tightrope: 99% success just isn’t enough. The hardest part is consistency: you have to follow the plan in all times and in all moods, not just when you’re feeling strong. Alcohol is very dangerous to your efforts. If you drink at all while fighting your smoking habit, make sure not to indulge to the point where you might be tempted to flout the GKi prime directive, which is “Never smoke before the scheduled time”. Such is the subtlety with which addiction can drive your behavior that you may find yourself retrospectively realizing that it was only the prospect of losing your inhibitions, and your consequent predictable lapse from GKi, that made you want to drink in the first place!
If things get out of hand, and you do end up taking an unscheduled smoke, your response to the situation becomes critical. Clearly the least beneficial thing you could do at this point would be to throw away all the gains you have made and give up on your efforts to achieve independence from smoking. Even if the temptation is strong — and it probably will be — the only way to avoid disaster is to give yourself a good reprimand, to remind yourself of everything you’re trying to achieve and why, and then to get back on the program with your resolve and determination newly reinforced.
Other systems Comparisons & interactions
Q. I’ve failed with other plans. Why should it be different with GottaKickit?
A. For some people more than others, independence from smoking is hard-won. It may require several tries using different methods before you find the one that works. If you’re the kind of person who favors a logical approach to problem-solving, GottaKickit’s SIGT (scheduled intake with geometric tapering) technology may be just what you need. If you’re getting emotional sustenance from your cigarettes along with the nicotine — in other words, if you’re a typical smoker — the ability of GottaKickit to let you deal separately with the physical and psychological components of the habit may be a critical point in its favor.
We’d like to add that you should never quit quitting, with or without GottaKickit, until you get there. So what if you ‘quit’ in the past then went back to it? Each failure has lessons you can use when fashioning a future success. You’ve learned by bitter experience how the habit tugs constantly at your resolve, and how easily and excusably and irrevocably you can backslide. OK, now you know, and next time you can keep a more vigilant guard. Those who forget history may be doomed to repeat it, but those who heed its lessons are forearmed against difficulties. With GottaKickit, the coming availability of that next cigarette at its appointed time lets you configure your resolve more sustainably, to a human rather than a heroic level, and still succeed. Maybe this is your time. Whichever method you choose, you surely owe it to yourself and your loved ones to give it another try.
Q. My five-foot-two-inch spouse successfully quit cold turkey. I tried and failed. Now he says I’m a weak-kneed dweeb? Am I?
A. We couldn’t say. But people do vary enormously in the strength of their addiction, and in the degree to which their social and professional circumstances tend to favor or forestall a return to smoking. Cold turkey is undoubtedly the best approach for your health, your pocketbook — just about everything save your mood — but only if you succeed. Otherwise, it’s mere pointless pain, and a gentler approach should have been chosen.
We believe that while cold turkey also has the great benefit of being easy to understand, other plans are easier actually to carry out. Still, it remains a leading option for the very impatient, for the excessively cheerful, and for those whose doctors have told them to quit now or else.
Q. Should I use nicotine gum while on the GottaKickit program?
A. We advise against using nicotine gum to augment your cigarette intake under GottaKickit. If you find that you’re cutting back too quickly, go to the Settings page and dial down the Power Level. Jolting your system with extra nicotine isn’t going to accomplish anything useful. However, it’s possible that there may be a role for gum as a substitute for individual cigarettes within your GKi smoking schedule. One could even imagine a purely gum-based approach to the program, but to our knowledge it hasn’t yet been tried. We would be interested in receiving progress reports and feedback from any users who have opinions or experiences relating to combining GottaKickit with nicotine gum or other stop-smoking tools and techniques.
Q. Should I use nicotine patches while on the GottaKickit program?
A. We don’t see any useful role for nicotine patches with GottaKickit. By gradually tapering your intake at a pace you set yourself, GottaKickit steadily reduces the amount of nicotine required to sustain your mood. There will be times when you wish your next cigarette were scheduled a little sooner, but nothing you can’t easily handle. Raising the base level of nicotine in your system — which is all the patch does — can only be counterproductive to this process.
Q. I won free hypnosis treatments to help me quit smoking. Should I take them?
Free? Sure, go ahead.
Using GottaKickit Hints and tips for GKi users
Q. Why does the display show “Now smoking” after I light up, and doesn’t display the time to the next cigarette until several minutes later? Where’s the time?
A. This is one of the ways the GottaKickit plan breaks your habit. After you light up, you shouldn’t be thinking about your next cigarette! The goal is not to get you trained to crave the next cigarette but to break the habit by changing your timing and existing smoking behavior.
Q. How are the “THEN” and “NOW” values calculated?
A. The bars on the Info screen show your progress from the start of the plan to the present. Once you have been using the plan for more than 24 hours, the “THEN” bar shows the number of cigarettes you registered in the first 24 hours, and the “NOW” bar shows the number smokes in the most recent 24 hours.
On the very first day of using the program, before 24 hours worth of data have been gathered, the “THEN” bar shows the estimated number of cigarettes per day you gave when you entered the plan. To show that this number is just an estimate, it says “around” before the number. The “NOW” bar counts up from zero with each new smoke that you register, and it shows “and counting” after the number until 24 hours of data is available.