When I put QR codes into Uniquely You, I thought I was being rather clever.
Scan the code. Leave your email address. Receive a free companion guide.
Simple. 
Except, as I discovered recently, “simple” can have quite a lot going on behind the curtain.
Those little QR codes were connected to a page on my website. The page was connected to an email form. The form was connected to an automatic email. And the email contained a link to the guide waiting patiently in Google Drive.
Quite a procession, really, for one small PDF.
And it worked.
Until it didn’t.
The interesting thing was that nothing appeared to be wrong. The form still accepted an email address. A pleasant little message appeared saying the guide was on its way.
Only it wasn’t.
I discovered this quite by accident when I decided to test one of the links myself. I entered my email address and waited.
Nothing.
I tried another email address.
Still nothing.
Spam folder? Nothing there either.
By this point, my wonderfully simple free download was beginning to reveal the rather elaborate machinery hiding underneath it.
Eventually I discovered that the free version of the email platform I use had changed. There were now limits on how many forms and automatic processes I could have running. Over time, I had created quite a collection: forms for programmes I was no longer offering, expressions of interest, an old book waitlist, free resources and various other good ideas from another time.
Some were no longer being used, but they were still there.
So began a spot of digital decluttering.
One by one, I went through them. Keep this one. Delete that one. No idea why I still have this one. Definitely don’t need that anymore.
I reduced everything to the few things I actually use now.
Then I tested the download again.
Nothing.
More searching revealed a few supposedly inactive processes still sitting in the background marked “Action required”. Apparently, even digital clutter can hide in cupboards.
Out they went too.
The next morning, I tried once more. I entered yet another of my email addresses and waited.
And there it was.
My email arrived. I clicked the link. Google Drive opened. The guide was waiting for me.
I felt ridiculously pleased.
Perhaps that is part of the absurdity of modern digital simplicity. We press a button and expect something to happen. Most of the time it does, and we rarely think about all the small connections working away behind the scenes.
Until one of them changes.
There was nothing particularly unreasonable about the platform changing what it offered for free. I wasn’t paying for the service, and free versions inevitably have limits. What caught me out was simply that something I had set up and trusted to keep working had quietly stopped doing so.
It made me wonder how many other things in our lives are a little like that.
We create a way of doing something. It works. We stop thinking about it. Then circumstances change, while we’re busy elsewhere, and what once flowed easily develops a kink somewhere in the chain.
Sometimes the answer isn’t to throw everything out and start again.
Sometimes it’s simply time to look behind the curtain, clear out what no longer serves a purpose, and see what still belongs.
As for my little QR codes, they’re working again.
And somewhere behind each one is still a surprisingly elaborate chain of events, quietly delivering a small PDF to anyone who asks for it.
One day I might simplify the whole thing. But for now, it works.
Simples!