The Hassle-free Dating Plan

The trials and tribulations of dating make for good humor and interesting dinner time stories! Doubling your dating pleasure starts with prioritizing the objectives of the date.

More single men and women could get more out of their dating if they applied a failsafe approach to the process.

While there aren't any rules to dating, here are a few pointers to enhance the dating excitement and thwart the perils of dating the wrong prospects.

1. Devise a simple dating plan. Meeting singles through personal ads, online dating sites and in the bar scene can expose you to a small percentage of undesirables. To avoid wasting your time, conduct thorough phone interviews with your prospective dates. Invest five to 10 hours of phone dating time first.

2. Ask your prospective date the following questions: where they work, reside, substance abuse habits and marital status. These are important questions to inquire if you are planning a date. Great time and energy can be saved by conducting a brief "interview". This helps both of you to know and understand each other.

3. Make your first date simple. Prior to your date, set a dating schedule... a minimum of an hour to three hours is ideal. A failsafe dating plan will assure the both of you are not obligated or disappointed to prolong a date that may not be going well for either party. Moreover, it avoids the awkwardness of ending the date soon.

4. Choose a cool dating location. Select a geographically convenient location for the both of you. Try to find an intimate and quiet public place but avoid the crowded bar scene because it will not do much for the first dating encounter if you can't hear each other talking!

5. Enforce dating security and safety. Whether you are a male or female, notify a close friend about where you plan to go on your date. Remember, to leave your date's contact information.

6. Make a dating pledge. Plan to go Dutch to alleviate any hard feelings so that no one bears the sole financial obligation of the date.

7. Finally, remember that dating is a numbers game. Every date will bring you that much closer to finding that special person who you will spend the rest of your life with!

Becky Mentyra is the dating specialist & webmaster of UM Dating Guide which is a resource for singles looking for their life partner. Visit her site for more dating tips, articles and advice: http://www.umdating.com

Written by: Becky Mentyra

Questions, Questions and More Questions

by Pat Stevens


After you have had a few dates with someone and you think it might be going somewhere, you begin to ask more serious questions about their childhood, family, job etc.


Eventually the relationship might progress to where the really tough questions must be asked. Like "have you ever slept with someone without using a condom" or "how much debt do you have"? There is no easy way to bring up these questions.

Recently, I received a copy of Michael Webb's newest book, 1000 Questions for Couples: What you absolutely must know about the person you are with. This book is going to make those difficult questions much easier to ask.

The questions start off easy like "Has anyone dear to you died? How did you handle it" and "About what things are you most selfish." They slowly progress (just like your relationship should) until you get to those questions that you simply can't avoid if you are going to commit your life to living with someone. There are questions on drug addictions, abuse, child rearing, finances and lots of questions about sex. And because these questions are coming from a book, you don't feel like "you" are asking them.

A special bonus that I really liked was the option to get 3-5 of the book's questions emailed to me each day. That way I could forward the questions on to my beloved and we could each read over them and forward the answers to each other that night. I can see where this would be very valuable for those in long distance relationships.


While there are a lot of questions in this book that are crucial for couples in the dating stage, the majority of the questions are useful for people who are already married. If you value your relationship, I urge you to ask these 1000 Questions for Couples. read more  

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