Hot Take: First Dates Should Only Last 57 Minutes

Yes, we are literally asking you to set your phone’s timer. Here’s why...

- Carina Hsieh

“So what should we do now?’ Rohan* asked as we finished our roasted butternut squash ravioli on our first date. I so wanted to answer his question honestly. I wanted to tell him that there would be no more ‘we’ tonight, because all ‘I’ wanted to do was go home and finish binge-watching Euphoria.

The good news: that was the old me. I was newly single and trying my best to ‘get back out there’ despite hating every second of small talk, pleasantries, and overly blah happy hour chardonnays. Every night, I’d find myself on another first date. It got to the point where I was barely seeing my friends—mainly because I was hungover from the second, third, or fourth round of drinks I didn’t want or need the night before. And the night before that.

But then I discovered something so, so crucial: I was doing first dates entirely wrong. They were way, way, wayyy too long. In reality, first dates should never be longer than an hour. More specifically, they should only be 57 minutes long, on the f*cking dot.

57 minutes is the perfect amount of time to grab one round of drinks, sip down one coffee, and figure out if your dating app match has any sisters or not. This is about the same length of a workout class, a boring work meeting, or how long you spend talking to your mom on the phone.