I'm not so hard core to play dead-is-dead but I try to avoid getting killed as best I can. I've learned a few habits from playing my first PC that are proving useful for my second one. For example:

• Never walk down the middle of a passage, that's where the pressure plates are usually located.
  
• Never stand directly in front of a treasure chest when you open it, that's usually the targeted area for traps.
  
• Double check your spells, active power/shout, and apparel before entering melee so there are no surprises when you arm yourself. I hate arming only to see dual healing spells at the ready.
  
• Don't be shy about running away to survive (I used to fight to the death rather than retreat).
  
• Drink the appropriate potions to pump up your health/magicka/stamina/insert_fortify_skill_here before entering melee.
  
• Poison melee weapons.
  
• Optionally: save so you don't have to do this all over.

I'm sure there are folks who'll also advocate using followers which is fair, but personally, I don't care for that style.

Of course, none of this matters once you're far along enough to be a walking god, but until you get there...

Please share your favorite, proven preparations.

Thanks!

Let my follower do most of the dirty work while I sit behid picking up the trash.

Does running away when I start dying count?

Yeah! See the fourth bullet - though I had to overcome some pride before freely doing it. Now I'm playing an unarmored mage so I've gotten really good at running away (and casting while I do it).

I miss fawkes from fallout 3

You, your an unarmored mage and its fine for you to run. I'm a Battlemage with Heavy Armor and still die real fast

I'm using a wooden sword that does 600 damage at level 82 and it's pretty god-damned ballanced

Fawkes
"Too easy. Next time put up a fight!"

Yes, good stuff kamil2. I do all those things myself without thinking...
RPing an unarmoured Mage myself; great fun.
You don't really have to run 'away' - just run. (somewhere.) LoL

Heheh... you're joking, right?
(obviously cheating somehow.)

Thanks - good point. I sometimes run away but other times, I run around to buy time. Running around generally doesn't work as well because I run into a dead-end, stumble onto a trap, or trigger more monsters so backtracking works best.

Oh - I just upgraded to Adept robes and hood so magicka isn't as sparse so I can stand my ground better (runes really help).

Oh man - that's tough. My PC is supposed to be something like Gandalf (an unarmored swordspell?) so I tried to avoid smithing but his melee strength is no good against opponents at Master-level difficulty (only 15 damage with a steel sword and a couple one-handed skill tree perks) . So I've started smithing but conditionally: no mining, no tanning, and no smelting. He's got to buy everything he needs. I'm excluding jewelry and building materials but he can craft anything else for smithing experience. I'm limiting the items he makes for personal use to steel or steel-like (Nordic?) one-handed swords for combat.