Hey NeverBeenTimid. I don't play chess, at least not very often. But I do work on puzzles and read almost every day. Some times I'm out of town for a week and spend a lot less time on chess. I can tell that not playing chess is no help to me. If I want to get better at chess, I will have to play. Maybe you've played enough chess that you could take a month off and not miss anything. Also, everybody has their own learning style, not to mention strengths and weaknesses. I have trouble catching all the details. I'm convinced that stronger players have learned to look ahead without missing details.
Enough of this -- happy chess study to you
Mm. Having gone up in tactics like a balloon while simultaneously going down in blitz like a bowling ball, I have my doubts*. Then again, I don't exactly know how to improve, either; couldn't get into Logical Chess Move by Move (it uses notation, which I'm not great at) or chess videos with english speaking (I practically can't speak English due never learning how to pronounce things), so eh...
* Also because I improve in, say, touhou by repeated playing 'till I hit a wall, watching a video, then attempting to replicate the video right after. Just watching can warn me of some cheap "gotchas" like 1. Nf3 g6 in atomic instantly dooming black, but subtler nuances would be lost.
There's bit of that philosophy in having kids take notes in class, actually. Perhaps blog/document/chat/analyse your learning experiences here?
It won't help, actually, if you want to improve fast, the best way is playing slow games, analyzing your own games, do tactics and learn strategy
"Having gone up in tactics like a balloon while simultaneously going down in blitz like a bowling ball"
Tactics ratings depend on how much time you spend on each puzzle and how patient and precise your analysis is as much as on your chess strength.
I see strong players with low puzzle ratings (~1000), I am guessing they either blitz through puzzles or possibly have mouse slips all the time (I wish there was a "confirm move" option for puzzles).
I am not a very strong player but sometimes manage to go above 2300 in puzzles by staying patient and spending as much time as I need on a single puzzle (and then lose a hundred points in short order by missing a few obvious lines).
For this reason, I believe puzzle rating is a very poor indicator of playing ability.
P.S.
I agree that doing tactics, learning strategy, playing SLOW games, and analysing your own games is the best way to learn.