5 Ways to Make a Great First Impression on Your Next Date

Published in

OE Match

3 min readJul 15, 2019

Meeting online is the equivalent of writing a letter to your beloved. Your mind translates the words typed into feelings, but the sensation cannot compare to the excitement of meeting in person for the first time. Assuming you’ve made it past the initial “getting-to-know-you” stage then your next step could be to plan a meetup. Here are five tips to help make your first date unforgettable.

1) Choose a Unique Location — Go beyond Dinner and a Movie

Most dates begin with dinner and could include drinks. While these are staples of first dates across the world, you should aim to differentiate your outing from others. If you choose a restaurant, choose one that has something unique that you can share with your date. Your goal should be to choose a comfortable place that encourages conversation and can transport you and your partner away from the worries that all of us from time to time carryover from work or our personal lives.

2) Explore Each Other’s Eyes

Eye contact is a staple of every dating textbook you can find, but it deserves mentioning here again. Eye contact is one of the best ways to build a connection with someone you have just met. If you’ve agreed to go on a date, then it’s safe to say that in most cases this will help bring you closer together.

3) Go Mini-Dating

Traditional dates mean going to one or two main spots. Another approach which you can try is to visit many different locations for short periods of time with your date. This idea of mini-dating could help you, and your match feel like you’ve already passed your first date and have known each other for longer.

4) Provide your Full Attention — No Cell Phones

Putting away your cellphone and making sure that your date commands 100% of your attention is a powerful way to show that you’re interested in them, their story and everything that will happen on your date. You always want to make your date feel as though they are the most important person to you, and your attention belongs to them.

5) [Applicable to Dating in Asia] Take a Gamble on Commitment

Have you ever met someone that you knew right away was someone that you wanted to get to know? Today dating is often non-exclusive and you may date several people simultaneously without ever applying the label “we’re dating”. This following tip works because it goes against what a large part of the dating pool is doing, and that’s telling the person you like directly that you want to date them exclusively and would like to start a relationships. If you feel strongly about someone and have had a great first date bringing up this conversation with certain commitment minded individuals could help you start a stronger relationship.