I think the most common one I use is the counting fingers one. It's been the most reliable one for me in the past and it's also convenient. If I'm in a public place I would just look down and often pretend I'm just cracking my knuckles or counting how much money I've got, if I'm in a shop for example :p Another one is pushing your fingers backwards, in reality it will be very difficult to do that, but in a dream they're likely to go all the way back and make contact with your hand. That's been very effective as well. Sometimes I might change the RC's depending on the situation but mostly I do the hand checks I mentioned.

Ah yes, RCs after a conversation would definitely be better, if it is to be a good practice. In fact when I began the routine of RCing to talking to people (over a year ago), I had a dream the very next morning where I was talking to a DC, and kept wondering how I should RC in front of her. I was just nodding to what she was saying and thinking "how on earth am I supposed to do this? This is so awkward" haha