After 15 years of smoking, Adrián Díaz Bulibasa decided it was time to quit. “I wanted to have a baby and I didn’t want my decisions to affect the health of my future baby,” he says.

But quitting smoking was difficult.

Bulibasa, who lives in London and is editor-in-chief of the website bestformyfeet.com, loved smoking and the culture around it. He liked to go to restaurants with friends and family, sit on the terrace and have a cocktail or coffee with some cigarettes.

Simply telling yourself to quit smoking didn’t work. He needed to find out where, when and why he smoked. He soon realized that most of the time he smoked it wasn’t because he craved nicotine. “It was because of the habits he had developed over the years around smoking,” he says.

Certain places and situations can make you want to smoke. You may want to smoke a cigarette when you are out with friends, when you finish dinner, or when you are stressed.

These are called triggers. By learning what your triggers are, you will be able to manage them better.

“A big part of quitting smoking is changing your habits and routines,” says Alma E. Anderson, MA, deputy director of the Arizona Center for Tobacco Cessation. Knowing your triggers helps you quit habits that increase your urges and helps you reinforce new habits that will help you quit, she says.

Your triggers may be related to how you feel. You may want to smoke a cigarette when you feel anxious, stressed, bored, happy, lonely, sad or satisfied.

Some triggers are linked to things you do regularly. These are called pattern triggers. For example, you may want to smoke when you drink alcohol or coffee, watch TV, drive, finish a meal, take a break from work, go to bed, or have sex.

Social triggers are tied to being around other people. You may be tempted when you go to a restaurant, a party, a concert, or a big event. Seeing someone smoke or being around people who smoke are common triggers.

Other triggers are related to the body’s craving for nicotine. You may feel like smoking when you smell, taste, or touch a cigarette. Feeling restless or having the urge to do something with your hands or mouth can make you want to smoke.

“You can identify your triggers by thinking about your day and seeing what reminds you of smoking,” says Anderson. Think about how you feel and what you do, and you will begin to realize what triggers your urge to smoke.

Bulibasa knew that to quit smoking he had to identify the triggers and break the patterns linked to each of them. He closely observed his habits and discovered that his triggers were restaurants, eating, drinking coffee, drinking alcohol and having sex.

“The day I decided to quit smoking, I stopped going to restaurants and bars,” he says. Since he liked to smoke a cigarette with a cup of coffee during work breaks, he avoided walking near smoking areas during breaks.

“Another thing I ended up doing that first year was stopping drinking coffee and alcohol completely because those were the factors that drove me to smoke,” he says.

He wasn’t ready to give up sex, so he found another way to control his cravings after sex. “I leave cigarettes somewhere out of reach, like in the kitchen,” he says. It helped that he didn’t see the backpack right next to the bed.

Bulibasa also had emotional triggers. He smoked when he felt good about finishing a task, when he was under pressure and when he was bored.

To manage these emotional triggers, he would distract himself with substitute activities like playing a game on his phone or eating a handful of popcorn or sunflower seeds. “As soon as I saw the trigger coming, I knew I had to quickly do something about it for about 5 to 10 minutes,” she says. After that, the desire disappeared for a few hours.

Anderson suggests following the four D’s to control smoking triggers:

• Delay
• do something else
• Drinking water
• Deep breathing

To control situational and social triggers, avoid places and situations that make you feel like smoking. For emotional triggers, try talking about your feelings, listening to relaxing music, breathing slowly, or exercising. For pattern triggers, try a replacement or physical activity and try changing your routine. Distraction can help with withdrawal triggers.

Bulibasa didn’t control all of her triggers overnight. Over a period of about a year, he changed his habits and gradually stopped them. He went from smoking 30 cigarettes a day, to 20, 10, 1 and then none.

Over time, Bulibasa used fewer strategies to control her triggers because she stopped needing them. “I was getting stronger and the desire to smoke wasn’t as strong anymore,” he says.

It’s been 8 years since you quit smoking. “I knew that if he could do it every day or every week and smoke less than the day or week before,” he says, “he would win the battle.”