I have quests coming out of my ears! I am trying to keep up but seem to be 'flitting' all over the map.

By profession I am an accountant and like to have everything 'in good order'. But this is all mixed up.

Is there some way to group quests that go together or that quests give an indication of what area they cover or something?

I try to do one main city after another with quests and go only to outgoing areas when the city's quest requires it. But you get to other towns and sometimes cannot really avoid picking up quests here and there. Then there are the quests obtained from books etc.

So result is that I have so many quests I am going nuts.

I try to work my way up the ladder because I think maybe the oldest first, but the quests shift around a lot. I avoid the ones telling me to join Imperials etc until later.

Just wondering what the system is, or if there is one.
With the main quests too, should I first do the one in Capital letters or should I first do the one at the bottom of the list?

It's just, you get involved in a storyline like the Elder Scrolls, or the Thieves Guild one (Nightingale stage) and then you really want to finish that line, but things get intermingled.

Anyway, I don't know if I am making sense here. But maybe there is a system to all the quests that I have not discovered yet? (I am level 31 now)

I'm the same way in the order i like to do them, the distance they send me for even simple ones is maddening.

I believe that the ordering system is based on which quest you completed an objective for most recently. Recent progress moves that quest to the TOP of the list. So trying to complete your bottommost quest first will result in them constantly cycling and you blowing your brains out in exasperation. Doing the topmost quest first is a much more sane choice, but still not ideal, since you will continue to pick up new quests and make progress on ones you're not "supposed" to be working on, which means that the order will keep changing no matter what you do.

Therefore, using the journal as a constant guide is just a bad idea. You should only open it when you do not have an immediate purpose.

There is no way to sort the journal. God, I wish there was. I'm a bookkeeper myself and would prefer having some way of organizing them to my liking.

However, you can select and deselect quests to appear on your compass/map. Just click them in the journal. I suggest that you take full advantage of this feature, and only keep a few quests, or even just one, "on the map" at any time. When you "run out", open the journal and select a few more.

If you insist on keeping many quests active at once, use your map. Look for clusters of quest arrows and prioritize those locations. Learn which quest arrows on your compass lead to nearby locations and which lead back out to the main map. A bigger arrow on your compass means that that objective is closer.

Another method I enjoy is with my clairvoyant mage character. He simply uses the Clairvoyance spell constantly and lets the gods decide where he should go. (I still turn off quests that are inappropriate for him - he will never join the Stormcloaks, for example.) Clairvoyance takes you to the nearest objective for any of your active quests, so this is a very efficient (though still imperfect) way to make progress. If it works with your character concept, I can't recommend Clairvoyance enough.

Hope this helps!

I usually go by what armor is offered by which guild. I'm a dunmer thief so I did dark brotherhood first, then thieves guild. while doing those I'm always picking up other side quests along the way. I did the mages guild stuff so I could get my hands on as many soul gems as possible to enchant weapons and armor. Since completing those three lines, I've been sharing time between the companions line and finding word walls.

I don't think there is a system per se. It is more about what direction you want your character to go. If I'd been an orc war god I'd have probably done the companions first?