I rarely see tactcics in my games

 I usually win purely on good exchanges and when my opponent blunders, how do i get good at tactics does doing puzzles actually help your game?

The thing is it's a completely different setting. In a tactic puzzle you know there is a tactic there so you are looking for it, looking at all the possible forcing moves etc no matter how unlikely it might seem that it would work at first glance. In a game there are no such hints, you have to train your brain to always be looking, analysing. What is your dream move? Where would you want this or that piece to be ideally? Then you have to see if there's any way that it's possible. If it's not then fine, play something else but look at the non-obvious moves first. What happens if you sac this or that? Sometimes it's just about being brave as well - playing the move/idea and seeing what happens because it looks good/interesting but you can't quite calculate all the variations. Have to risk sometimes. What you are doing with good exchanges and taking advantage of blunders is fine and good but to take your game up a level you need to be able to spot tactical opportunities. 

The best tactics look like blunders on the surface. 

There are easy tactics that you can shoot for.

 

Put your rook opposite your opponent's queen.  You can create a pin, or win a queen. Do it not and you will never see the chance.

 

Also, do more puzzles, the more tactics you know, the more you will see.

Read “Predator at the Chess board” vol 1 and 2 which is all about how to read the chess board for tactical opportunities.

Yes puzzles help. My experience is little and often, a few every day, is better than a binge once a week, then give it time, months, and the brain will start to automate the pattern recognition. There are things you can look for that can indicate there may be a tactical opportunity, undefended pieces, a weak back rank, alignment for pins and skewers, if you see these but the pieces seem inaccessible then it's always worth calculating sacrifices or trades and see what it turns up. A key component though is piece activity. Tactics come alive when you have your pieces well developed, coordinated and making threats (holding tension or pressuring a key square). If you feel you are better developed than your opponent, with good activity, look hard, there is probably something there.

i am in the process of actively scanning for “signals” in a position

king safety, loose pieces, overworked pieces, knight fork distance, alignment (there are 7 and i cant name the others right now)

whenever a couple of these factors are present then there is usually some kind of tactic

the tactics flow from the position

but you can start with small steps until the positions get “better”

start by getting developed quickly and try to get a strong central presence

then you can try to gang up pressure on opponents position where it isnt as defended

if you get castled first get your rooks xrayed with opponents king and queen

get your bishops lined up against opponents weak points (enemy king, queen, rooks, weak squares, etc) this can lead to pins


look at paul morphy games and see how fluidly he gets his pieces into the game

and at the end of the day, if you can gang up on and win a pawn that is still kind of tactical

pins were probably the first tactic i started being able to notice when i trained up some fwiw

and defending knight forks is one of my weaknesses

also double attacks- especially with an exposed king