Is this what I am supposed to do?

For the past few days, I have been saying mantras in my head; the most common one is 'tonight when I dream, I will realize that I am dreaming'.

I'm confused about the RCing, though. I'm confused as to whether I have to put my fingers through my hand and repeat to myself, "if my fingers go through my hand, I'm dreaming" or whatever, or just be skeptical of everything... Help?

Also, is remembering an average of 2 dreams a night a good start? I began dream journalling only yesterday night, and today I remembered nearly three full dreams, or most of each.

I don't know how effective mantras are, but I've so far only heard about using them in bed until you fall asleep.

For each RC you need to acknowledge that you may currently be in a dream without realising it. Then you test whether or not you are, in fact, dreaming. You'd normally want to perform at least two different tests whenever you make a check, and it's a good idea to make one of them the nose pinch test because it rarely ever fails. The most important thing however is to take the time and invest the effort to perform the checks properly whenever you do them. Even (or perhaps especially) when you don't feel like it.

Two dreams per night is probably a good start since I recall having started out at 1,5 per night. By keeping a dream journal you can bring it up to 4+ quickly enough, no worries.

Thanks. I'm a bit skeptical about the mantras as well, and how they really work, but I will try RCing that way.