TCP Socket Programming - should I wait until I get a response from server?

I'm new to network programming and I'm making an application that works with TCP sockets on android. Currently I made it so that when a request is send, I wait for answer, then I update UI and after a set period of time I send the request again. If I get certian information back, I want to send a different request. I don't know if this is good approach, but I can't seem to make it work unless I get some sort of answer before making the next request. One problem with this is, that if the server doesn't respond I get stuck, which I could go around with a timeout.