In my opinion, if you want to improve in blitz you need to make the typical positions second nature to you, so you can do it without thinking.
That means you have to spend hours everyday analyzing how to play typical pawn structures, endgames, and tactics. So when you see them in a blitz game, your brain just lights up and recognizes them, and you would automatically know what to do.
So I've been getting into chess for just over a year and I feel that I'm learning more and playing better, I can see the results in my standard and "online" chess rating. However in Blitz my rating is a lot worse then it was a year ok and I'm not really sure why. It is annoying because I'd like to see some improvement in shorter time controls. Any idea's? Should I be playing in a different style in blitz?