It’s easy to get caught up in the congestion of online dating communications. You’re online, sending emails, receiving instant messages, searching for that spark that will lead your digital date to an offline romance. Then you add a little thing called life to the mix and suddenly you’re stuck in a quagmire. You have more emails in your inbox then you can answer, you shut off your instant messaging client so you can get some time to think and attempt to align everything so that all of your ducks are back in a nice, straight line and nobody is missing a reply.

You’ll undoubtedly find yourself behind the gun a few times. The real issue is what signal this sends to the people you’re chatting with. It’s easy to get to the point where you think that an email is likely just another dead end – a person who might be great but more than likely will end up like every other romantic interest that’s passed through your life. After all, you’ve probably dated a number of people and still haven’t found that right one. If this sounds familiar, you’ve fallen into the online dating trap and you need to get out. Not replying to emails in a timely fashion is sending a sign and it’s a problem if you’re serious about your quest for romance.

“If you put this plan into play, you’re guaranteed better results and fewer missed opportunities in your search for romance.”

This is a game of hit and miss, where seconds count and the reward so significant that missing a beat may cost you more than you’re willing to lose. The only problem with this is that you’ll never know what you’ve lost, even after it’s gone. How many times have you met someone who seemed like an unlikely romantic interest only to grow into a real possibility after time had passed and you really started to get to know them? And how many of those times did your realization strike too late, when they had fallen in love with the meathead in accounting or the tramp at the coffee shop? These unlikely connections are the people in your inbox. They are the people we meet without meeting -- the people who await our replies and are left to form opinions of their own about us after the days and weeks pass between our communications. They have others knocking on their door, too, and it’s only a matter of time before someone snatches them up. You just might miss that perfect person but you’re clearly too busy to notice it.

Smart dating and communication requires a plan. Decide right now that you will put the effort in to reply within 24 hours of receiving a message. You don’t need to send a novel – you just need to keep that connection alive. Let them know you’re busy. Respond to at least one thing they wrote and, most importantly, ask them a question in return. Responding to something they wrote says you’re paying attention and making an effort even though you’re tight for time. The question you ask shows them you’re interested in them. This is essential to keeping any relationship alive. If you put this plan into play, you’re guaranteed better results and fewer missed opportunities in your search for romance.

If you’re out for love, making people wait for replies will cripple your chances of success. Sure, some people won’t care how long it takes. They may sit by their screens for days, weeks or months on end, lingering until you decide to take time for them, but I’m not sure that these are the people who you’ll really want to meet. The real catches seem to come and go quickly. Decide upfront that you’re serious about your time online. Develop a plan. Stick to it. Hopefully, sooner than later, you will have found the person you’ve been looking for and your inbox can fill to the brim with unanswered emails as you cuddle up next to the one that didn’t get away.