Anyone use a totem? Successful?

I realise there have been a couple of threads regarding this subject some years ago, but most of the responses were people considering trying the idea and some who had found them self a totem and were going to experiment. Unfortunately there were no follow ups I could find whether this was an effective RC if carried at all times and treated as a serious RC. I came across this post which talks about them and it got me thinking whether its something worth trying or if its a waste of time? Anyone with experience or use a totem I'd love to hear the viability of something like this.

Edit: This is seriously cool.

I don't have anything that is actually considered a talisman, but I do have things that I don't have on my person during the day that I have at night, this can easily alert me to the fact that I am dreaming. I don't worry about being fooled during waking and thinking that it is a dream, because I think that everyone defaults at thinking that they are awake.

I have a watch, sword, and necklace that are on my person during my lucid dreams, one of them helps me stabilize the dream, the other one I am working on making an ability for it. Either way, if I realize that I am wearing a watch, sword, necklace, then I am dreaming. So not quite the same as a totem, but similar ideas.

I have used a talisman, but more as a reminder to do an RC than as an RC in itself. I sometimes carry a ping-pong ball in my pocket, and when I become aware of the ping-pong ball, I do an RC. When I first started carrying it, I used checking whether the ball was there as an RC, but after I had a dream in which I didn't have the ball in my pocket, I stopped doing that. But by that point it was still an item I associated with dreaming, so I still sometimes carry it around with me as a reminder to do my day work.

After watching Inception I started to carry a totem. It actually worked, it was my own custom reality check. Go for it.

Here's my totem. :) It's a magnetic "magician's ring." I constantly rub my fingers on it (similar to touching objects in order to stabilize a dream) and question my conscious state. I enjoy that it is magnetic, because it will often "interact" with things without warning, causing me to spontaneously check my state whenever it happens. The latest bit of success I'd had was in realizing I was dreaming while walking through a hallway at work, where I normally focus on my totem and question my state.

http://i.imgur.com/gtYpgRll.jpg

I previously carried a different object, though, and I've had some success with that, as well. :)