How does a completionist play Skyrim?

[MurderousMarvin]

I finally bought Skyrim. I've been putting it off because I know how huge the game is, and I know how I play games. When I play gamesI want to do every quest, and I feel like I need to explore every nook and cranny just in case I'm missing something that could lead to one.
5 hours into Skyrim and I've read like 80 books. Sure enough, by doing that I found 3 quests. I can only read so many books, or walk into every hut and talk to every character in every town.
Do you all have any advice about how I should play this game? Because the way I'm playing it leads to madness.

[Bomb Bloke]

Sure, be a completionist. Aim to play the game until you've "done it all". Just... don't put a time limit on that goal. Feel free to play other games in the meantime.

There's a quest log. Simply let it fill up. If you get bored, scroll through it until you find something that looks interesting, then go do it. One day you'll notice that the log is emptying faster than it's filling. One day you'll find it's empty and there's nothing more to fill it with.

Speaking as one who read every book and talked to every NPC he came across, then played until the quest log was as empty as it gets (some quests never leave it - Dark Brotherhood Forever for eg), then restarted and is half way through doing it all again, it's not really that huge a task.

[Trigger]

start with the 75 achievements steam offers

[Spocks Toupee]

I've never been able to do it, because you eventually reach a point where your savegame gets so bloated it won't load without crashing

[The Maestro]

Now? With his/her wallet out.

[Trigger]

join and complete the Bard's college line, join and finish the Dark Brotherhood, the Thieves Guild, choose a side in the civil war and win the war, become agent of Mara, complete main quest-line, Dragonborn main quest line, Dawnguard TOO = That a good start to completing this game, got more when your ready......