Keeping Track of Neutral Monsters - Buffs like Blue and Red as well as bigger objectives such as Dragon and Baron can all be timed.
Blue and Red respawn 5 minutes after their camp is cleared.
Dragon respawns 6 minutes after it dies.
Baron respawns 7 minutes after it is dead.
A good way to keep track of everything is to type things in chat. Use your own time stamps and small words that let you know what you're talking about. Say you kill Blue Buff in your jungle at 2:05. You would type into your chat: "7:05 ob." 7:05 being 5 minutes from when your Blue Buff died, so the time it will respawn, and ob standing for "Our Blue." Or stands for our red, tb means their blue and tr means their red.
Time any objective you see die, even the opponents buffs. It will not only help you to possibly counter jungle but if you don't see them on the map when one of their buffs is coming back up you'll have a good idea what they're doing - getting that buff!
Choosing a Jungler That is Right For You - While playing champions that are at the peak of their strength can be useful, some junglers won't fit your playstyle.
I would say that there are probably three main types of junglers that most champions fall under. Early game monsters. Late game carries. Counterjunglers.
Early game monsters are there to get their lanes kills, snowball the game super early and win it before the other team has a chance to catch up and outscale you. They tend to get a few buffs and then just gank lane after lane, forgoing farm in order to get teammates rolling. Champions like Lee Sin and Xin Zhao are good examples of early game junglers.
Late game carries are champions that although they're jungling, if you let them stay relevant they will crush you late game. These champions tend to be very vulnerable to counter jungling and although they can sometimes do very well early, that isn't the norm. Champions like Nasus and Sejuani are good examples of late game carry junglers.
Then we have counterjunglers, the most hated group of junglers. These junglers excel at screwing over their counterpart on the other team. They have kits that are very good for dueling, setting traps or stealing camps. Champions like Shaco, Nunu and Shyvana are examples of counterjunglers.
Now of course some champions will be outside of these groups. Some will be part of one and part of another. But generally these are the three things junglers will focus on most. So try out a few different types of junglers and see what you like to do about them. Then, once you figure it out, practice junglers that are good at what you like to do. (So if you enjoy counterjungling, practice Shaco. If you like to constantly gank, try Lee Sin).
COMMUNICATION - This one is super simple. It's also super effective. Talk to your laners.
Ask them where wards are. Ask them what CDs they have. Ask them what CDs the enemy has. Ask questions, get information. Information is power. If you know that the enemy Ashe doesn't have flash up as jungle Volibear then you can confidently come in fast and flash flip her to your teammates without worrying about her flashing your flash. You can use CDs effectively without wasting them.
Ask For Help - Laners at low elo generally are not going to come on their own to help you. As a jungler it is part of your job to help dictate how the game plays. Use assist pings, warning pings, talk in chat. Do what you need to do to get your laners to do what they need to do. Should they know better? Yes. Does it really matter whose fault it is when you're dead and a buff down? Not really. The fact of the matter is that these things happen and it's in your best interests to try and make sure they happen less. don't play the blame game, be the general on the battlefield and direct your troops so there is no blame to be had!
What You Want to be Doing - I wish that this was simpler but unfortunately it isn't. Jungling isn't black and white, especially in the high level meta.
Here are some of the things that you CAN do:
Farm - Kill creeps in your jungle
Hold Lanes - Last hit minions in a lane while your laners are dead/back
Push Lanes - Push with or without your laner, depending on the situation, so that your minions hit the enemy tower and deny the enemy laner CS.
Gank - Attempt to kill enemy in a lane from river/tri/sides of the lane
Lane Gank - Attempt to kill enemy through the lane, coming through brushes
Counterjungle - Kill creeps/enemy jungler in enemy jungle
Lane - Literally lane with one of your laners (This is usually only in cases of lane swaps where one of your solo lanes is dealing with a duo)
What you SHOULD do in any specific situation is going to depend on a lot of factors. If you're behind, if you're ahead. If the lane you're considering ganking could 2v3 or 1v2 you. If you could gank bot or top.
I believe that there is one question which really decides everything. Which of your options helps your team as a whole the most?
Think of the game as a whole work in progress. If you go top for an extended gank will you open up the possibility of a free dragon if the other team makes a play for it? If you hold mid while he backs are both of your bot laners going to die in a dive because you aren't there to help? A lot of these questions you'll only learn the answer to through experience but some you can figure out with simple logic.
If you can gank a lane with a hypercarry who is having some issues or gank a lane with a weak late game champion that's simply been pushed in for a wave it's a pretty easy decision if both ganks have the same chance of success right? You go with the hyper carry.
In general this is something along the lines of what I find works with the average jungler:
Get both buffs. Gank a lane that is either in need of help or the enemy is over-extending with no wards. If all of your lanes are pushed, farm your jungle. If your lanes don't need help but one of them wants to back, hold it for them. If you get a kill on a laner, help your teammate push any minions to turret so that they can back and force the enemy to lose CS.
If a pathway is warded, go a route that has no vision. For example if you're ganking bot or top and the river is warded, try going through the tri-brush. If the side of mid is warded, come from one of the jungle routes. And if every path is warded and a lane truly needs help, invest in a pink ward. Place it to clear a route so that you can gank. It's not fun having to do your teammates job but it's necessary sometimes if you want to win.
Learn From the Best - If you have the time and care enough, watch high elo junglers!! Watch what they do, watch how they play. Watch the decisions they make. If you go to twitch and the LoL streams you can usually find at least one high elo jungler on the front page.
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