I found one way to improve my game, is a fairly simple way. No text books needed, no paper, no pens, no chess notation logs, not even a board and pieces if you want to be cheap. The internet is a great resource to play 1, 2, or 5 minute games. First start at 5 and play a decent computer program or on an internet server against people (depends on your internet connection speed), next cut back to 2 or 1 minutes and keep playing a lot, I repeat a lot of games. Try to remember a few of your mistakes each games, and some glimpses of the positions you were in. Easy way to cram in learning some great chess tactics and ideas in a shorter amount of time. I'm talking about making a five year course turn into less than a year. If you ever find yourself forgetting or getting rusty, just hit the blitz again. Well I have to go, you already wasted 2 minutes which could have been atleast two blitz games for me!