I’m too far out of the dating pool to give to you much advice, but one thing I’ll say is don’t worry too much about the response time thing… that was a thing I worried about too, but the reality is if the person really likes you, they won’t mind, they’ll like hearing from you. Just don’t start hounding someone if THEY haven’t responded. If someone isn’t responding much that’s a sign they’re probably not as interested as you are, and you might need to let that one slip.
Good luck, it’s exhausting sometimes, but try to have fun with it and don’t give up!