How can I improve my blitz fast and efficiently?

Just got done with the 3rd game of a tournament I'm in. I'm 1557, but I have not played OTB since I took a break from chess around 2 years ago. The game itself will be another topic, but I've noticed a pattern in my play. I won the first game due to my opponent (1980) making a fatal blunder, but otherwise I was simply outplayed and it had nothing to do with time. The second game, I put up a very hard fight against my opponent (1950) and got a slightly (maybe more) inferior position. Both of us got into time trouble, but I made a series of mistakes until I was hanging a piece to a bishop fork. This third game was IMO my best game ever, but I gave up a winning position in time trouble against a guy in the 1800s somewhere. The game turned completely drawish, and then I hung a piece to a rook fork.

Simply put, I totally suck at blitz and my skill at blitz is much lower than long time controls. I know it's completely normal to be worse at blitz, but I just cannot stop hanging pieces and making ridiculous mistakes. At my level, this is seeming to turn out to be unacceptable. My OTB game seems to have greatly improved since I came back, but online blitz has remained at the exact same level. No matter how many games I play, I seem to have hit a wall and I have no idea how to get past it.

Not to pin this problem on uncontrollable problems, but part of this is because I have ADD and, even with my current medication, my thought process is definitely not as fast as the majority. Since there's nothing I can do about that unless I somehow find something else, I just have to learn how to play blitz anyways. I really need all the help I can get.

Simple Answer: Study Tactics

Long Answer: Study Tactics

I will not get into an argument about ADD, of course... This is a chess forum. I probably should not have mentioned it at all, but whatever. The point is that I have terrible problems with thinking efficiently in a very limited amount of time. Forget I mentioned ADD.

Tactics is not my forte, for sure. I don't think I would say that it is a huge weakness compared to my other areas though. My latest game was a real attacking game, and I was kinda crushing my opponent although he avoided most of the threatened tactics. I won my first game against the 1980 with a tactic.

I have trouble with certain tactics in blitz, sure, but that's because I don't have time to analyze these things. I lack the time to really consider my opponent's moves and far too often I just forget about the opponent.  It's not all about the losing tactics though, my main concern is just my general trouble with blitz. Strategically, tactically, whatever, I do not feel as though I'm competing at the level I should be in blitz.

I do need to start playing longer games and I will. I've been doing some on ICC, but I know I need more.  Thanks.

Edit: I am double facepalming so hard right now. After going over the last game, I see that I played pretty well as I thought... but I missed a mate in 6 (essentially a mate in 4 with 2 kamikaze moves). To make it worse, I actually played the third move in the sequence first and thus threw the easy win away. It was right in front of me! I calculated the winning line up to the 3rd move not seeing it, then discovering the 3rd move as a seperate candidate and played it without a second thought. This has taught me that my thought process really needs some tweaking and, yes, I need more tactics than I thought. Well, so much for my best game ever... It does make me feel better that my opponent and a spectator missed it after the game too though (except that, out of everyone, I should surely be the one finding it since I was the one analysing those lines). I'll be making a puzzle out of that tactic so everyone can tell me how easy it was and torture me :'( bawwwww

oh no, what have I started... Only one way to reverse this. I meant add in that I lack fundamental arithmetic skills. How this affects my chess, well, I have no idea. There ya go.

I said in my original post that I knew I shouldn't pin the blame on my...uh... arithmetic skills. Yes, that's it. Please stop mentioning my arithmetic skills or my professor will be very displeased.

Also when your rating is only 1563, say that it is not your weakness is lying to yourself.  Tactics guaranteed is your biggiest weakness.  Strategy doesn't always exsist in blitz to the extent off what is my major plan, you just think ok that looks like a good square and it doesn't hang a piece.  But seriously if you think tactics isn't your main problem at 1500 you will never improve at blitz.  Blitz is all tactics.

I suck at blitz too ... standard rating (and OTB) 1300-1400, blitz 1100-1200. I seem to improve at longer time controls when I consider my standard and OTB ratings, but at blitz I'm stuck ... I was at the same level even when I was much weaker in long games. The point is, I see a lot of tactics (compared what I used to see one year ago), but I need at least, let's say, 30 seconds per move to notice any obvious tactics like hanging pieces, and blunder-check my planned move. If I try to play faster, as is necessary in a 3 or 5 minute time control, I'll inevitably blunder something. If I try to play a good game, I'll be way too slow and might end up in a won position, even a queen up, and lose on time. In my club, I've beaten stronger players in clockless games, sometimes even 1700s, but I never beat a 1400 in a blitz game. Blitz is very frustrating for me, but I continue to practice it ... At least it seems to be getting better since even the 15/15 time control eluded me when I was a beginner, which is not that much of a problem nowadays.

Tactics, tactics!  Have you used the tactics trainer here on chess.com?  I heardy chesstempo has one too but I have not tried it..

Some people have good memory that is why it is very easy for them to learn the game of chess. even kids are getting better, grandmasters are younger than before ficher's time. So, need to learn the game. Unless you play only for fun just like me.

I would speculate that the best way to improve your blitz play is to not play so much blitz

The best way to improve your blitz is to play higher rated opposition and to look at your games afterwards. You have diamond membership, so send a lot of your games off to the site analysis tool.

Select a sensible time control like eight or ten minutes each.

Don't worry about the losses but do try your hardest.

By playing fast and efficiently

Fast chess is pattern recognition.  To improve, work as long as you like on tactical puzzles, but then go over any of the ones you missed (even the next day) to learn/engrave these patterns.  Blitz isn't about fast calculation (no one could possibly calculate that fast) but, for example, most club players can notice a smothered mate in 5 in an instant without having to verify by looking at each individual move.

As for the tournament games, sounds like time management skills would help a lot.  The advice I've been given involves budgeting your time.  Plan on 40-50 moves and find out on average how much time you have for each move.  Of course in a 50 minute game you're not going to spend 1 minute on each move during the opening or other obvious moves like captures, but it will let you gauge your progress at move 10, 20, 30 etc.  Practice, and hopefully at the end of the game you wont find yourself in a winning position but are forced to blitz 20 moves due to poor time management.