There are 3 key concepts: a goal setting, scheduling (time management) and play/learn ratio.
I personally use a 70/30 ratio where I play 70% of the time and learn 30% of the time. There’s no ideal ratio because it’s individual. What works for some might not work for others and vice versa. There are generally two types of people:
People who get bored learning theory so they rather learn through practice.
People who are interested in learning theory.
The truth is everyone benefits from learning theory because game knowledge is such a big part of League. Therefore, the ratio should never be less than 90/10 and not higher than 60/40. If it’s less, you play too much and learn too little. And if it’s higher, you are better off becoming a coach.
There’s no way to tell what ratio you should use. You have to go through a trial and error process and stick to what you feel most comfortable with (or see most results with.). It’s important to find a balance, however. You shouldn’t feel like learning is forced. That’s why I recommend people start gradually. If you’re completely new to learning, the ratio can be 95/5 but your goal should be to increase it by five or ten, for example, every two weeks up until you have tried every ratio from 95/5 to 65/35 (there’s really no need to go higher than that unless you’re thinking about coaching). That helps your mentality adapt to different situations and schedules. You will find what ratio is best suitable for you.
The goal setting and scheduling time go hand in hand. First, you have to answer two questions:
What’s your end goal in League?
(The end goal helps you break down your big goal into smaller goals and create a plan to achieve those goals.) For example, an end goal can be ’’I want to play in the LCS.Or ’’I want to reach Master.’’ In case your end goal is not related to either joining the competitive scene (Whether it’s an amateur or pro league; whether it’s reaching top 5 in your country or top 5 in Europe – doesn’t matter) OR climbing to reach a specific elo (For example, ’’I want to reach high elo’’ is not a good goal compared to ’’I want to reach Diamond.’’It has to be specific.), then you should just stick to playing for fun.
How much time do you have to invest in League?
First, you have to set a time frame. What I use and recommend people use is a week because it’s not too long and it’s not too short. For example, every Sunday determines how much free time will you have next week to devote to the game. Whether it’s 10, 20, 40 or 60 hours will make a huge difference in how realistic your goals are and when can they be achieved.
For a conclusive example, let’s say my end goal in League is to reach Master. I have 40 hours a week to play and/or learn, and after trying different play/learn ratios, I have found that 80/20 suits me best. You can change the play/learn ratio at any time if you feel it has stopped working for you. (Do not, however, start changing it every week because a week is too short to get a sizeable sample to evaluate how it was working for you.)

Once you have these 3 key concepts figured out for yourself. It’s important to ’’learn how to learn’’ which essentially is structuring your learning and working smart (or using effective techniques and methods).
According to my logic, League of Legends gets broken down into 3 main categories (in no order):
Mechanics
Game knowledge
Mentality
Mechanics are your ability to pilot a champion. For example: kiting, peeling, attack moving/stutter stepping, landing/dodging skill shots, positioning etceteras. You can learn the theory behind those concepts but generally speaking, you improve your mechanics by playing. The more you play, the better and more consistent your mechanics will be.
Game knowledge is all the theory behind the game. For example: skill information of champions (effects, damage, cooldowns, cost), power spikes, warding and vision control, map awareness and the macro, trading and team fighting (when, how and why), initiation and disengage (when and why), split pushing (as the pusher and the rest of the team), how to snowball a lead, how to close out a game, how to stall a losing game, what are win conditions, being in the right place at the right time (and why you shouldn’t be somewhere else) etc.
Mentality consists of your attitude toward the game (for example, do you tilt or are you tilt-proof, how you deal with mistakes and losses, how you deal with teammates’ mistakes – do you start flaming and blame them or do you remain calm and collected, are you humble in both victory and defeat etc?), your attitude toward learning and improving (do you learn outside the game, do you work smart or hard, how do you structure your learning etc), and I would include teamwork and communication under mentality as well.
While mechanics are mostly learned in-game, game knowledge and mentality are learned outside the game and that’s where a lot of people fall short. They only play.
There are countless techniques and methods to learn. Such as but not limited to: finding a mentor (a mentor can be a coach who works with you 1-on-1, a mentoring community like League of Mentoring where you can ask questions and discuss, a mentor can be a YouTube content creator, a Twitch streamer, a pro player, a high elo player etc.), analyzing (For example, OP.GG statistics, vods or competitive games), reading articles or discussions, discussing with other players, researching. There’s more.
There’s a 3-part structure to learning that I have adapted from other walks of life and implemented into League.
Fixing mistakes and leaks (leaks are consistent mistakes you unknowingly make every game.) through what I call the problem – solution method. You first identify a mistake or a leak (whether you know it’s a mistake, an aspect of the game you’re struggling or have problems with, or a mistake a teammate or a coach points out). Once you identify it, you write it down in a list. It’s important to keep a list of your mistakes and leaks, and what you’re working on fixing. Secondly, you start looking for a solution. You can use any of the techniques and methods I mentioned earlier. Once you find a solution, you try applying it in your game. If it works for you, stick to it. If it doesn’t, try another solution. Not all solutions work so don’t get upset if the first one doesn’t work out.
Learning new concepts and/or aspects. There’s no need to reinvent the wheel and start discovering what others have discovered before you. If there’s a subject, you’re curious about, there’s someone who has learned it. Pros, high elo players, mentors – they have all the knowledge you’re looking for. Learn from them. Similarly to a mistake/leaks list, you want to have a new concepts list where you write down what new concepts you’re working on now and what you’ll work on in the future.
When you work on fixing a mistake and/or a leak, or learning/implementing a new concept – please do not try to do everything at once. Focus on one, maybe two things at once, not more.
Maintenance. While the first two parts were focused on learning and improvement, the third part focuses on maintaining what you’ve learned and maintained your skill (while improving). It basically measures progress. For example, if in part 1 you wrote down you consider your CS ing to be a mistake because your average CS/minute is too low, and you worked 2 weeks on fixing/improving that. Let’s say last month your average CS/minute was four, now it’s six. If you’ve stopped working on that aspect of the game, for now, to focus on other aspect(s), write it down on your maintenance list. A week, two weeks, three weeks from now – check your average CS/minute. If it dropped below six, you are probably getting slightly worse in that aspect of the game because you’re focusing too much on something else. If it stays 6 or rises above 6 while you’re working on other stuff, it has become second nature to you. But make sure you track that. The same principle applies to all aspects of the game and while some aspects are easier to measure than others, all aspects can be measured in some way, shape or form.
Extra:
The key principle is that you should always focus on yourself. Nothing else. People keep blaming Riot that the meta is not balanced. They blame the champions, the items. They blame their teammates. They blame the opponents. They probably blame who knows what or who for them losing the game. Once you stop blaming and complaining and realize you're the problem, that’s when you open yourself to learning, improving and becoming a better player.

Written by nOlej