Frustratingly, improvement in chess rarely comes in neat linear fashion. We like to imagine that spending X number of hours means Y number of rating points, but it doesn't work that way. Chess is a grueling climb, with ratings slowly inching up in between long periods of plateaus and dips. Sometimes, though, we seem to magically level up and jump dozens if not hundreds of rating points seemingly overnight.
I have been fortunate enough to have at least three of these level-up moments. Today, I want to briefly list what I was doing just before each phase, and then to give a summary of the common factors. I can't guarantee copying this will give you equally large leaps, but perhaps training like this is something to consider. Certainly I plan on doing this more.
