My favorite movie of all time is Fight Club. If you haven't seen it, I won't ruin it for you, but I will be using some of the best quotes from the movie.

One of the main characters in Fight Club is a man by the name of Tyler Durden. Tyler is many things, but for the purpose of this article, he is a man who lives quite simply. His ideas and concepts are brilliant. Here are some of my favorite quotes:

Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need.

Simply brilliant. With the constant bombardment of advertising that we're all subjected to, it almost becomes second nature to buy more and more. Tyler made the simple connection that buying too much stuff can lead to you being stuck at a job you hate, simply to pay for the stuff you don't need. Stop buying stuff, starting doing what you love.

I say never be complete, I say stop being perfect, I say let... lets evolve, let the chips fall where they may.

Could there really be a better definition of a simple life? Sometimes good enough is good enough - there's no need to be perfect.

You're not your job. You're not how much money you have in the bank. You're not the car you drive. You're not the contents of your wallet. You're not your fucking khakis.

Too often we feel the need to define ourselves by the things we possess. Things do not make us who we are. Accepting that is the first step to owning less, and living a simpler life.

The things you own end up owning you.

Too many possessions, too much stuff... you will end up spending too much of your time on the maintenance, upkeep, organization, and repair of your stuff. Don't let your stuff own you.

We're consumers. We are by-products of a lifestyle obsession. Murder, crime, poverty, these things don't concern me. What concerns me are celebrity magazines, television with 500 channels, some guy's name on my underwear. Rogaine, Viagra, Olestra.

To the average person, 500 channels of high definition television is vastly more important than poverty. I'm not saying you have to change the world and feed all the poor. But realizing how backwards are priorities are can help you live a better life, less focused on material things.

Fuck what you know. You need to forget about what you know, that's your problem. Forget about what you think you know about life, about friendship, and especially about you and me.

If you really want to change your life and live more simply, then you must forget everything you know. Your current / old way of doing things is wrong, and the things you've learned must be unlearned. Forget these things so you can learn all over again.

What do you want? Wanna go back to the shit job, fuckin' condo world, watching sitcoms? Fuck you, I won't do it.

Once you've experienced a drastically simplified life, whatever that may mean to you, there's no way in the world you will go back. The benefits are too dramatic, too fantastic, too wonderful to give up.

Tyler Durden is a fictional character, of course, and has his share of deep-rooted issues. But when it comes to living a simple life, he knows what he's talking about, and has tons of advice to offer.

Evernote is one of my favorite programs / web services of all time. If I had to define Evernote simply and easily, I would call it "A way to organize every digital thing." Really that describes it quite perfectly. You can use Evernote to organize your notes, ideas, receipts, pictures, web clippings, PDF's, audio clips, and just about anything else you can think of.

Evernote is accessible from any computer - just go to their website, log in, and your entire "notebook" is available to you, easily searchable. Of course, this isn't the best way to access Evernote, but it's good to know that you'll never be without your information. Evernote offers a desktop application for Mac OS X, Windows, and they even have an iPhone version. No matter where you are, your information is quite simple to get to.

Search is the killer feature

After uploading months of notes, receipts, clippings, and various text files, even tags have their limits on organization. Enter the killer feature of Evernote: search. The search function looks at the title, tags, and even inside the file. If you have text in your images, Evernote looks in there too. Yep, it does OCR. Premium users get an additional level of search - all PDF's are searchable. Absolutely incredible.

Get the desktop app

Anytime I buy something online these days, I ⌘+P to print, then click on the PDF drop-down box, and "Save PDF to Evernote". Automagically, my receipt / page / whatever is saved into Evernote, and is completely searchable. No more trying to remember where I put the printout, or trying to find the email. Search for a word or two, and Evernote will find what I'm looking for.

Try it out for free

The basic Evernote service is completely free. You get to upload as much as 40 MB per month, with no total storage limit. For all but the most ardent users, that's plenty. If you choose to upgrade, it's $5 per month, or $45 per year. For your support, you get an absurd monthly upload limit of 500 MB, and the killer PDF search feature. Easily worth the price, many times over.

Unclutter your hard drive, organize your life

Forget hundreds of text files, PDF's, and receipts littering your Documents folder. Upload them to Evernote and delete them from your hard drive. Organize and simplify.

When it comes to speaking, writing, emails, tweets, instant messages, whatever – we often say more than we need to. Services like Twitter help with that, with the 140 character limit. But no such limits exist when talking to another human in real life, or composing an email. Since limits aren’t built in, you need to create limits.

Get to the point

Instead of blabbering on, get to the point. The meat and potatoes. Say it and get on with it. Don’t write for 8 paragraphs, building up to what you want to tell me. Just tell me. If the message is good, I’ll be interested, and glad that you didn’t waste my time. If you make me wait, and the message is weak, I’m going to be a little ticked off.

Simplify, simplify

If you don’t have to come up with so much “fluff”, you’ll be free to do more. Or less. The point is, simplifying your words gives you more time, more freedom. Do what you want with the extra time, even if what you want is nothing. Doing nothing is doing something, and there’s nothing wrong with that at all.

In all areas of our lives, we strive for perfection. Every project at work has to be perfect. We look for perfection in our finances. In our marriage. When raising our kids. Even mowing the lawn - we demand perfection. And to a point, that's a good thing. Doing a great job is something to be proud of, as long as you are reasonable.

Rather than stress over making every single area of your life perfect, choose some things where you accept that "Good enough is, well, good enough." Spend a reasonable amount of time and effort to do a good job. Then stop. Don't spend hours of time, and tons of energy trying to make it perfect. Not only will you exhaust yourself, you won't succeed in making everything perfect. This doesn't make you a quitter - in fact it makes you a brilliant human being.

Use your energy wisely, as it's a finite resource. Reducing stress can go a long way toward helping you live the kind of life you want for yourself. Eliminating the need to be perfect is a huge weight off your shoulders. Go ahead, try it. The next time you're working on something that isn't absolutely critical, do a good job. And then stop. Do no more, and move on to the next task. If your to-do list is complete, then it's time to rest and enjoy a little down time.

Your week has been hectic - you worked too many hours, and did too many chores around the house.  You're exhausted, and looking forward to that trip out of town with your wife to relax.  Friday afternoon comes along and your phone rings - it's your sister.

Rob, can you watch my kids for me?  My babysitter canceled!

No sis, I really can't.

See, that was easy.  Sure, your sister's plans are ruined, and that's a shame.  But it's not your problem.  Say no, gently, nicely, but firmly.  You have plans in place.   Sure, the plan is to do nothing - and that's exactly what you need after a long week.  Don't be afraid to tell family and friends no.  And don't feel guilty about it either.  Living a simple life isn't about catering to everyone's needs, and filling every moment of your time.

Your wife wants to take kung-fu pilates classes with you, but you would rather sit on your back porch and mellow out?  Just say no.  Don't agree just because you think you're supposed to.  Say no, do nothing, and relax.  Living a simple life is about enjoying the moment, and not filling the moments with things that don't matter.  If you're honest with your wife, she will understand.  She'll appreciate your honesty too - and you'll enjoy yourself.

So stop being afraid, start saying no, and slow down your life.  You'll be amazed at what you've been missing all these years.