Climbing the Elo Ladder: Preparation

In order to help people learn now to climb the Elo ladder, I'm going to give any tips I have personally tried and have garnered success with. People like to say that they get stuck in Elo Hell, and while there is a possibility that's true... I tend to disagree. So, the first thing I'm going to mention are some tips for your general life style. Honestly, these will not only help you play better, but will improve your life in general.

• Get sleep. Pretty simply, but staying up 20 hours a day means you're barely able to focus on anything, much less a League game.
• Eat as healthy as you can. If you can afford to not eat garbage all day, you really should. Food you actually have to cook yourself is a step in the right direction.
• Get some form of exercise. I seriously mean this. It doesn't have to be working out at the gym for hours. Go on a 20 minute walk. Do some situps or push-ups. The best thing I can recommend for people who play League is to do situps and push-ups for every death in a game, and do them right after the game. It works wonders.
• If you don't feel like you are going to play your best: don't. On a side note: if you have ranked anxiety, I recommend the opposite: just play, get over your ladder anxiety.
• Be positive. This wins more games than I can count. Don't give up ever. If you truly want your elo to rise, stay positive, and never surrender: people love to throw games, especially at lower elo's.
• Along the same vain as positivity: never rage. It never get's anything done. Even if people rage at you, do not return rage. Just keep calm and farm on.

Overall, these are simple tips (and I cannot stress the positivity, never surrendering, and never rage tips) that WILL help your elo.  It may not be the difference between 600 and 2k, but it will raise it up even just a bit, and if you are intent on getting high elo, every little bit counts.

Next list will be in-game/in-queue tips.