Free Not Your Mother's Rules: The New Secrets for Dating by Ellen Fein, Sherrie Schneider

wrote back: What were you thinking? When is good for you?
    Stacey waited 20 minutes and wrote back: When did you have in mind?
    He wrote back five minutes later: Saturday night for dinner?
    Stacey waited 30 minutes this time and wrote back: OK, great!
    The highlights here: Never assume a guy is asking you out, and don’t volunteer your schedule. Make him pin you down for a specific night. And of course, don’t text him back immediately, and when you do respond, mix it up and write fewer words than he does (see schedule below).
    All texts, especially the first one from a new guy, should be responded to with fewer words than he wrote. For example, if he writes, “Hey what’s up? Wanna go out sometime?” you should write back, “Sure, that sounds like fun.” Do not write back, “Sure, that would be great. Work is kind of crazy, but I am free this Thursday night and all weekend and I know a really cool happy hour place.” That would be too manywords as well as too eager. For whatever reason, women can blow men out of the water with their verbiage. By writing more than a guy, you become the more interested party, and thus the pursuer, because the more words you use, the more interested and available you seem. Less is more! Remember, in the beginning you want to seem too busy to text immediately or to text a lot so
he
has to chase
you
.
    When we help women with answering subsequent texts, we ask how she and the guy met, their ages, whether they are in fact dating or just texting a lot, how long they have been seeing each other, and what the current situation is. No matter the circumstances, a
Rules
Girl should not text back in less than thirty minutes or three hours, depending on her age. These are minimums! Even if a guy is texting to confirm a date, you can wait an hour to write back. Remember, you don’t live to text—you have a life!
Text-Back Times
    Not sure how soon or long to wait to answer a guy’s text? Look no further! Here is our chart for minimum response times by age with detailed explanations.
Age
Minimum Text-Back Time
Why
18–22 years old
30 minutes Want to really catch his attention? Wait an hour!
If you are 18 to 22 years old and in a committed, exclusive relationship, you should text back after 30 minutes, but can text more regularly than with a guy you just met, but you still have to be somewhat mysterious and end it first.
23–25 years old
One hour Want to really catch his attention? Wait two hours!
Women 23 to 25 years old are usually busy working and living in their own apartments. They have real things going on like business meetings and a commute and rent and bills to deal with, so it would be completely realistic to take an hour to get back to a guy, and it wouldn’t be so bad to make a guy wait two hours!
Rules
Girls do not check their texts in the middle of a meeting with a client or while driving home from work. The first is not smart and the second is dangerous.
26–30 years old
Two hours Want to really catch his attention? Wait three hours!
Women 26 to 30 years old are not only working and being social, but they have even more responsibilities than recent college graduates. Perhaps they have a secretary or supervise an assistant and have to do important things like check their balances online or meet their quotas. They are also hopefully going to parties and clubs and on dates, so they can’t text back all day long either.
31 and over
Three hours Want to really catch his attention? Wait four hours!
Most women 31 years old and older want to get married. They have important jobs and other responsibilities and interests such as mortgages, volunteer work, and nieces and nephews, and have no time to text back men who just want to text and not ask them out for Saturday night dates.
    Remember, these text-back times are not for answering a guy’s first text. That should
always
be a minimum of four hours or more. But once a text conversation gets going, you should
not
rigidly stick to the