I used to keep a diary of what dreams I had, lucid or not I'd keep track of any I could remember.
This is good advice. The first step to lucid dreaming is to remember your dreams (improve your dream recall). When you awake immediately make a note of your dreams, every detail you can remember.
After a while you'll find that you naturally remember more of your dreams and you remember them in greater detail than before.
The next thing is to train yourself to recognise you're dreaming. This is tricky. As you've already mentioned you need to perform reality checks (RC) throughout the day.
Right now you know you're awake so you might think, "what's the point in performing an RC?" But your dream self probably behaves in exactly the same way, i.e. "I know I'm awake, no need to double check", even though you might be experiencing something that would only happen in a dream.
One RC you can perform is to check your watch (if it's digital) or read something written in small-ish print. In dreams the small characters often lack definition. If you're having difficulty reading you're probably dreaming (either that or you're drunk).
Once you've realised that you're dreaming you are now lucid. Months of hard work have finally paid off, brilliant! But now you've gotten so excited that you've accidentally woken yourself up. You'll have to learn to keep calm in future
I've managed to lucid dream a few times but lost interest. If you're keen then there's a great site called ld4all. Lots of useful information there.
Anyway, good luck! And remember; super perfundo on the early eve of your day!