Day 10 after quitting vapingFog at the desk

By Yevhenii, who smoked for 26 years · Updated 30 Oct 2026 · 2 min read

In shortPoor concentration rose in the vaping studies like every other symptom, and in nicotine research it is worst in the first week and gone for most people by the third or fourth. A vape on the desk meant you may not have had real breaks. Start taking them.

What's happening in your body

Nicotine sharpens attention briefly, and a brain that gets it every few minutes comes to count on those lifts. Difficulty concentrating rose in the vaping abstinence studies like every other symptom. In nicotine research generally it is worst in the first week and gone for most people by the third or fourth.

What to expect

Reading a paragraph three times. Losing the thread in a meeting. There is also a vape-specific twist. Smokers had to leave the desk for their nicotine, so they took breaks. You probably did not, because the device sat beside the keyboard, and you may have been working for years with no real breaks at all. None of the fog reflects your real capacity. If concentration is still clearly worse after a month, mention it to a doctor.

Try this

Start taking breaks. Work in blocks of twenty-five minutes, then stand up, walk to a window and drink some water.

What else you could do

The method has a name, the Pomodoro technique, if you want to read about it. Write things down rather than holding them in your head. Do one thing at a time. Put the hardest thinking wherever your own day is sharpest. And give driving a little more care than usual these days.

Sources. Measured in vapers: Hughes et al., 2020. Time course measured in smokers: Hughes, 2007.