wills,

I have the same problem as you. I am a perfectionist. I started journals many times over the years and ended up shredding them because they weren't "organized".

Then I went into psychosis and lost track of all my paperwork, bills, etc. I went totally nuts at the pile of stuff I had to straighten out, but I did eventually get it straightened out. I also started a journal again.

My humble advice is this - organize what you already have as best you can. They make wonderful office supplies for just this purpose. Then start a new journal. Record everything in it. Keep it with you as you can, but also have a small memo pad for quick notes.

Keep your journals and memo pads organized by date, for example, Journal #1: 11/28/13 - 01/01/14, then Journal #2: 01/01/14 - 05/01/14, and so on. This will make it easy to precisely organize them.

My strongest advice is do not destroy anything because it isn't organized. I'm so sad I did. I can never get back those thoughts and ideas.

The key is to organize as best you can, then start fresh. This worked very well for me.

You're in my thoughts as a fellow traveler. This will work if you allow it to. I know it's hard to get past that organizational wall, but you can do it.

Edited to add that I organize within my journal with highlighter pens. I use blue for significant ideas, yellow for another purpose, pink for dreams, green to highlight dates. I only highlight the first line in the margin so that the journal isn't one solid highlight. I also use those little colored Post-It tabs for the most important entries.