As someone who’s trying to improve his own dream recalling ability I’m interested in hearing what did you do while trying to get better at remembering dreams.
EDIT: Besides dream journaling
Well, I can think of many different practices one could use to improve dream recall:
Meditation
ADA/Observation
Autosuggestion/Intending to remember dreams each night
Keeping a healthy sleep habit
Reading about dreams and lucid dreams in general
Taking advantage of one’s REM cycles, awakening just when ending each cycle to have recent dreams easily remembered.
Re-reading past dream entries you’ve had just before going to sleep
Dream journaling (my favorite 
)
Motivation
Having a relaxed state of mind
Keeping an observational/mindful state of mind helps one stay aware at all times about what’s happening around you. As a result, it’s less frequent for one to miss when one’s dreaming, and also helps one become lucid in the process. In addition, being in an unstressed, relaxed state of mind is a factor that has an influence on your ability to remember dreams. You can verify this when being on weekends, due to the fact one’s less worried about the stresses of life, can sleep longer, and just relax, thus, making it easier to remember dreams.
Using autosuggestion, or intending to remember your dreams is also a great aid in recalling one’s dreams. Motivation is also a very influential factor to keep in mind. When I just knew about lucid dreams, I was so motivated about the idea that the simple act of intending to remember my dreams for the night helped me recall many of them, and in a single night of practice! Even reading about the topic and reading about dreams and lucid dream experiences alike influenced my ability to remember dreams.
Regarding dream journaling, I guess I don’t need to tell you much about it. Re-reading one’s dreams is a nice trick that, believe it or not, can help you remember your dreams as well. Also, keep in mind that a healthy sleep habit is a determinant factor that should always be considered. If you’re not getting enough sleep, or just feel extremely tired at night, it shouldn’t surprise you if you’re having trouble recalling any dreams at all. Still, it’s a tough habit to change if one’s not used to sleeping a little early, yet it’s still something important to keep in mind.
About REM periods, I haven’t experimented with that, but I’m user others have. From what I’ve read, because we all dream when being on REM, awakening just at the end of each cycle helps one remember very easily their dreams, most likely because you have the experience so fresh in your mind.
In conclusion, I’ll say it all depends on the amount of time you dedicate yourself to the practice(s) you decide to follow. What I believe is that, whatever is relevant to the mind, the further it will seek it. So, we must make dreaming relevant. Hope this helps. 
Wow thanks so much for such a nice reply. I just started practicing ADA and it’s actually really freaking fun so that’s a plus!
I’ll try autosuggestion tonight, I used it before for inducing a dream but never thought it could also apply to dream recall which is awesome! Rock on.