How to Keep a Smoking Craving Diary

A worked example

Worked example, using fictional events. A strong urge starts at 15:00 and eases around 15:10 without smoking. At 18:30 the urge is weaker, but the person smokes one cigarette. The journal contains two observations of urges; the smoking section contains one actual episode. Recording cigarettes alone would omit the first event. This separation makes the difference between feeling and action visible. Two observations cannot establish dependence severity or prove that any particular action caused the first urge to ease.

What to do

1. 01

   Describe the urge in words or use a separately defined personal scale.

2. 02

   State the onset and approximate duration.

3. 03

   Note whether smoking followed.

4. 04

   Use the free-text journal for an urge without a cigarette.

Common mistakes

• Record only cases that ended in smoking.
• Change the scale from day to day.
• Rate yourself as weak because of a high number.

Urges and cigarette counts use different units

A cigarette count records an action. An urge description records a subjective experience at a particular time. Do not convert a strong urge into imaginary cigarettes or create a positive smoking entry merely to mark its timestamp. If you write later, label duration as approximate. Define consistent meanings for descriptive words, such as “strong” meaning that attention was difficult to redirect. That is a personal recording convention, not a clinical scale. When reviewing, keep urges without smoking distinct from smoking episodes rather than treating one measure as a substitute for the other.

How to check the result

• ✓Urges and actual smoking are recorded separately.
• ✓An urge without smoking does not increase the counter.
• ✓Estimated times are labelled.
• ✓Mood emojis are not described as craving scores.

To understand the circumstances preceding an urge, compare your notes with recurring smoking triggers without assuming they prove causation.

How this works in Vesometr

The journal can describe an urge and its outcome. The five mood emojis do not measure craving or calculate dependence.

Sources and fact checking

App features were checked against Vesometr 1.2.2. External sources explain general guidance, rather than validating individual medical conclusions.

• Vesometr 1.2.2: official APK — Identifies the release; behavior was also checked against its source code.
• Australian Government: Know your triggers — Supports recording cravings and circumstances separately from smoking events.