Back in my sysadmin tech days, I learned the one immutable truth about planned operations: there is always a bottleneck in the process somewhere. You can’t avoid it, ever. The “bottleneck” is the eye of the needle; it’s the one engineering factor that keeps the system from running the way you want it to. It could be lack of processor power, or maybe the hard drives don’t pass data fast enough. Maybe the software needs to be more efficient. No matter what you do, however, there is always one single point that’s holding up the show; all you can do is fix it, open up the bottleneck, and sit and wait until the next one manifests itself. And step by step, you get stronger.

Seen that way, bottlenecks are good things. They’re reality’s way of improving itself, of telling us what needs to be done next. They keep us on track. So as frustrating as they can be at time, I welcome bottlenecks. They keep me sharp.

With my copywriting business over the years, the bottleneck has always been one of two things: bringing clients in, or getting deliverables out. Either I can’t bring in enough client work to fill productive capacity, or I’m overloaded and can’t get deliverables out fast enough to accommodate all the clients I can pull in. So pretty much from day one, life has consisted of solving those two problems, over and over again, finding better ways to do it each time. Back and forth, back and forth. Equilibrium in oscillation. Life in a nutshell.

Early this year, the problem was rounding up clients. Now we’re back to productive capacity again, usually the easier of the two problems to solve, because the solution can usually be found somewhere in technology. The client end, you’re dealing with people, and human beings are harder to work around than machines. But lately I’ve been sorting through my software libraries and rearranging my lineup of writing-related utilities, trying to find a better combination of tools than the ones I’ve been using.

I think I’ve finally found a killer combination: FreeMind, an excellent “mind mapping” software package, and TextRoom, a minimalist word processor. Both are open source and pretty good quality. FreeMind makes it a snap to analyze client calls, sort research, outline assignment drafts and maintain sophisticated to-do lists; it’s a great organizational tool. TextRoom is perfect for distraction-free writing, especially with its “flow mode” turned on – disabling the backspace and delete keys, forcing you forward and effectively turning it into a digital typewriter. I highly recommend them both.

So anyway, just got one big round of deliverables out, and I’ve got a new client launch call in another hour. Tri-fold brochure for a mortgage broker. Then, most likely, it’s back to solving the client-recruit problem again.

Again, alas, equilibrium in oscillation: the meaning of life.

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