My current client is starting something like that company-wide right now, just last week I had a discussion with one of my coworkers because I favor your approach while he’s more of a “Standards come from God” person; he also believes that “the Standard” must be only one. I was considering sending him a copy of… dunnow, a standard for nuts and bolts, say? With a zillion different sizes defined in a single document 
Good for you!
Frylock, there is some great advice here on how to be organized. You are going to have to sort-out what works for you by trial and error. I have been doing Project and Program Management for almost 20 years, and my mantra has been “I am not smart enough to remember everything, that’s why I write things down”. Spreadsheet, Outlook, MS Project, whiteboards, etc. all offer some advantages - you just need to try some of the ideas suggested here, and from what your management suggests, and get to something you are comfortable with; I don’t think there is one answer that will work for everyone.
Also, for priorities - some advice I got years ago: At the start of the week, know what your top 3 priorities are, and what the next 3 are. When you have addressed the top 3, then go to the next 3. If you try to prioritize “all” the things on your list, you will get bogged-down. Just know the top 3 to 6 and focus on them.
Good luck in your new role - it sounds like you are going to do great things!
Sounds like the upper-layer pooh-bahs who chose you for this job
actually (wait for it . . . ) knew what the fuck they were doing?
Who’da thunk it?
When you say a bajillion little projects it hrows things out of context. How many people are you working with? Do you have group leaders under you? Are individuals or groups assigned multiple prijects? It all makes a differnce. The only tools you really have are the people under you so you do need to get to know them and what you can expect and not expect from them.
I asume you have work orders opened on jobs in progress, demand these work orders are kept up dated by whoever is in charge of these jobs. If they are waiting for parts, approvals, design changes etc it has to be noted on the open work order. You don't have to be hands on to know whats going on, the more you know about whats going on the stronger you will be so I always liked to stay as involved as possible at whatever level time would allow. This means hustling in a busy shop.And do you have to meet just one-on-one? I do have weekly meetings with my supervisor, but we also meet as a department for an hour on Monday mornings, and it is invaluable. I’m not a huge fan of meetings, but on Mondays the five of us run through all our contracts (various states, some with multiple regions) and do status reports on who is traveling, what they’re doing, and what we’re doing as well. If not for these meetings, I’d only know what I and my boss are up to, not my grand-boss, not the two other people I work with, and more importantly neither the national team nor what people on the ground are up to.
I’m glad it’s working out better for you now, though!
Don’t call them “reports” - that’s a modern business-speak-ism that always backfires at “lower levels”. Call them your people, or your personnel, or best of all - your team.
If you have to use the lingo at your level or above to “fit in” with the brass, that’s fine, but at least try to learn the names of the people working for you. I told my team that not only do I have an open-door policy, but I want them to as well, because I’m going to come around and see and talk to them as often as I can, just to stay in touch, hear their concerns and ideas, and try my best to make us the best team on the floor. You’d be surprised at how well people respond to that. The best part is, they’ll start to respect you, have your back, handle bad news better, and make sure you have what you need when you ask for it so you don’t look like a disorgnized doofus. 
But seriously. Lose the business-speak-ese toot-sweet.