Hi,

Been playing a lot the past few months, and feel like I've been playing well. I'm having some issues now

I'm not sure how to take the next step, or even how to properly study. I keep seeing the same advice: Pick a topic, deep dive and then try to apply it and see how that works.

Maybe I'm just dumb, but I don't know what that means. Like what tangible steps should I take to really start doing this.

Let's take a topic like Cbetting BTN vs BB.
Should I just be:
Watching videos and taking notes on what boards to Cbet
Running sims on different flops and looking at percentages
Getting GTO trainer and running spots in that
Marking hands and then running those in PIO to see how they went
A mix of all of these??

Any help or real guidance would help greatly.

Thanks

Pick a topic
Watch a video on it
Actively look for those spots when you're playing and apply what you've learned form the video
Mark those hands
Analyze the ranges in those hands, think about how your range does vs opponents range
Switch some variables around to go deeper, different flop, different positions, different villain type, ...

GTO is not useful unless you're playing high stakes

Not sure why you're asking a question you already have the answers to.
Just do the work.

imo a big part of actionable studying or "doing the work" starts at reviewing your own HH's that were either interesting or confusing, and these HH's will illustrate particular concepts. Instead of getting out of bed and saying "I am going to look at flop cbetting as BTN vs. BB defender today" you pull up a recent session, and the flagged HH's will raise certain concepts.

One of the most beneficial exercises from this HH review will be really diving into the particular spot by using a program (Equilab or Flopzilla) and breaking down the all ranges. What combos does Hero want to take X action here and why? If Hero folds X combo here, what combos are calling? What combos will Villain fold and/or call here if Hero bets X sizing? Also, by using as range equity calculator, you can (1) really visualize the entirety of the respective ranges, so that next time you're in-game in a similar spot, you will have more familiarity with certain nuances of the situation that may not have occurred to you naturally; and (2) the range equity calculator will provide outputs that can help form a mathematical basis for a certain range construction (e.g. We decide to 3bet this range because it will have X% equity advantage against Villain's calling range). Playing with such range advantages/disadvantages described in (2) allows YOU to start doing the critical thinking rather than taking a certain action because you saw a pro on TV do it and they must be good.