how have you increased alertness?

so basically i started my LD journey from the beginning cos im pretty sure i was trying too hard before–back to the very start. i just had a dream and remembered part of it was REALLY unrealistic and i shouldve been able to become lucid (cos i was able to do it before), whether it would last or not. anyway, i woke up thinking: “damn, i should work on that”
so that leads me to a question: what has made other people lucid? im basically asking to describe HOW you got better at lucid dreaming, namely increasing alertness. in detail.
basically things like . . .
if you did RCs, which ones worked for you? did you do a physical RC or did you ask questions in your head?
if there were things you only see in dreams, how did you lead yourself to recognising them with no RL experience? (POV switches?)
how did you begin to question reality/recognise your dreams more? ADA? constant scepticism? MILD?
questions like that etc. . . .

this isnt really an “advice” question, more like a personal experience one. just curious really. but the more detail you put in the better

I’m not the luckiest in terms of having lucid dreams, but whenever I’m actively working at Lucid Dreaming, there are a few things I do to stay on high alert.

Whenever doing RC’s, I do at least 3. Usually hands, nose, and testing if I can control something in the world. I usually act as if I am in a dream, asking myself, “Where am I, and how did I get here. How do I know this is not a dream?”, I do this whenever I remember to RC. Along with that, recently I’ve been trying ADA in bursts of 5 minutes, usually around 6 - 10 times a day, remembering to RC when I do this.

There also hasn’t been a night in a good year or so when I haven’t used Auto Suggestion to remember my dreams and attempt to have an LD.

So far I’ve become far more alert, but it hasn’t transferred into my dreams just yet!

What do you mean with ADA?

All Day Awareness.

From how I understand it, you maintain awareness of yoursefl and your surroundings, instead of “tuning it out” or “running on autopilot” as most of humanity does. Awareness of self includes and is not being limited to: physical sensation, including clothes and shoes, smells, tastes, and sounds.

Someone correct me if I am wrong, please.