Hi!

Why don't you try both at the same time? It saves time.

Nah, just kidding.

With time (and lots of practice), muscle memory will kick in and you will be looking straight into your audience's eyes. That said, you will be surprised how quickly you get used to it in your first position (not stepping to the higher frets).

But in the mean time, you will probably find it easier to find an anchor point on your right arm/hand (lead players will tend to keep their wrist in contact with their bridge or tail piece and play with wrist movements, not shifting much their arm position; strummers will tend to anchor their arm at some point on the edge of the guitar and strum moving their arm and wrist).

And while you do this, take a peep at your left hand. Just try, as much as possible, to avoid twisting the neck to see the fretboard directly. Try using the markings on the side of the neck.

Cheers,