What do you wish you'd known? Starting a LDR

[Jadegirl]

What do you wish you'd known?
He'll be in the UK, I'm in Australia.
My amazing bf of 4 months is going on exchange for 6 months. We want to try LD, but feeling worried and unsure how to make it work.
What advice would you want to know starting out? What's been the most useful? Anything, big or small, all advice is appreciated. Thank you

[differentcountries]

How important it is to stay in touch online. I feel very comfortable not seeing my SO (we just had 4 months between visits), but if I dont know where he is or does not answer me in what I think is a reasonable ammount of time, I go into panic mode. It is important to keep in touch over several media, when his phone broke down a couple of times we were able to stay in touch over Facebook that he could use on the computer.

[autumn1790]

How important a feasible and at least estimated end date is. LDRs are undeniably tough, but imo even tougher when even meeting is in the murky category of "someday." Best of luck in whatever you decide!

[kittyxuchiha11]

How important it is to schedule in date nights and make it clear when you can and can't talk with your SO. It's been like a year and a half since we meet and although i was previously in a LDR every relationship is different and requires different things and it took both my SO and I some time to get used to arranging date nights an sticking to them.