Ok your on a 250 ... closer to my 300 so I will throw my 2cents.
I am assuming you took an MSF course so use your training on shifting. Before you upshift or downshift roll off the throttle .. all the way. Shift your gear, release on your clutch and roll back on the throttle easy. The more you practice the more you can increase/pop back harder on your throttle which will help if you get in emergency situations where you need to drop gears and get out quick. Just practice and you will find it will be an automatic response you will not even have to think about it. I dont even notice it anymore. I am more to the point of trying to blip to stay in my power zone. If you try to shift on the throttle .. going up through the gears you will just cause the bike to jump into gear hard if your RPMS are not matched for the speed... if you do it when downshifting you will get that back tire jumping and skipping around which is not good. When downshifting you want to apply some braking and downshift roll back slowly and let the motor engine brake to help slow you down. If you go down to many gears and your speed/rpms are too high for that gear you will lock up that rear and it can throw you off. So if you let all the way off the throttle and roll back slow you will feel it in the engine and see the rpms jump high if you are going to fast for that gear ... roll back off and come back up one gear. I get lazy and coast sometimes just hold the clutch in and slow down using brakes only. Just remember to downshift to a gear that is good for that speed. I normally do this when coming to a red light or stop sign ... just remember to downshift cause it sucks to stall out because you forgot to downshift
. You need to set in memory what speeds are good for each gear. Make mental notes when you are riding when you need to shift up on each gear .. so when you downshift you can match the speed for that gear. You do not want to drop down to 3rd gear doing 60 mph ... You may be able to do 60 mph in third gear but you will be close to redline. When you ride in the lower gears try to remember at what speed if felt like you needed to shift when riding at a normal pace. When you slow to that speed you can downshift to the next gear.
Now before entering turns ... the bike is easier to control in a corner when the RPMS are higher. Better throttle response and control. If you enter a corner and you are in 6th gear going 30 mph your throttle response is slower because you are probably about 3000 rpm riding in a gear where you be at 8000-9000 rpm. So if you are entering a corner that you are slowing down prior to entering you want to downshift before you reach the corner and set your speed. So for example you want to take a corner at 30 mph ... be in 2nd or 3rd gear and set you speed before you enter. This has your rpms revved up so when you enter the corner you have more control/response to the throttle and upon exit when you start to power out you have the power to move on and go. And the bike will feel better underneath you .. you will feel more in control. Try to avoid changing gears until you are exiting the corner .. past the apex and are bringing the bike back up to center. Switching gears mid corner can cause a crash. Same with braking try not to brake in the corner. Your speed should be set prior to corner entry. If you think you are going to fast or the bike is not turning ... use your counter steering and lean the bike. Hitting the brake and letting off the throttle hard will make the bike stand up and you will blow the corner bad putting you in the other lane or off the road. Use the road signs if they are there...I know when I first started I was very timid about taking corners at posted speeds. Our bikes will go through corners without a lot of lean and just counter steering... the more you lean the faster you will be able to go and slowing down for most corners will be a distant memory. I recall someone telling me 3000-4000 rpms in slow corners is a good sweet spot for our bikes (this should put around 3rd gear). All this is relative to the speed your are carrying of course. For example a 15 mph I am in 2nd gear ... 30-45 in 3rd gear. The higher the speed of the corner the higher the gear. If you are taking a long sweeper at 55-65 mph just hold steady and go ... I may down shift to 5th just so I can power out faster. Just remember when you down shift you have to scrub off some speed before dropping to the next gear to keep that rear wheel from hopping or locking up. If you need to slow down quick you have to brake (easy dont jump on it) and downshift at the same time.
Now as far cruising speed and gears ... the lower the RPM the less gas you will use. So if you holding steady at 45 and in 6th gear the engine is not working as hard = less fuel use. Now in order to increase speed fast you have to down shift to 5th or maybe 4th to get up and go. If you try to increase speed from 45mph to say freeway speed in 6th gear you will be a slow moving target. Again the best thing to do is keep the engine revved so you can make quick increases in speed. If you are the only thing on the road and its 30-40 mph shift on up to 6th gear and cruise. If you are in traffic keep those RPMS up so if you have to make a sudden lane change or speed up to avoid something the bike will respond quickly. Your bike sweet spot is about 8500-9000 rpm. That is where you will get the best throttle response when speeding up.
I hope that helps.
