New here and kind of lost/overwhelmed

[Michael Arndt]

I'm new to Atlassian and it really looks very robust but at the same time I feel overwhelmed.  I'm not building software but trying to create a processes for my company and work within different types of systems.

My current situation at work is not organized very well. We're trying to use a very informal sprint method but I just can't stay organized keeping all my thoughts and notes in several different tools (Google Docs, Tasks, Keep, emails,etc)

I basically have several projects that are ongoing and I feel like I'm pretty lost at this point.

I want to be able to build out all these projects, backlog items, create sprints and then work towards completing them. Sounds simple but I have some fundamental questions?

1. Do back logged items have to be added to projects? Is there no way to just have a general backlog that then gets added to sprints?
2. How do I see my sprints, tasks, etc. collectively? I'm worried that if I have to go into each project to see what needs to be done it just gets confusing.
3. I notice the old gen scrum or kabana boards allow you to create multiple boards in each project. From what I can tell the next gen board don't.  Is that a correct observation?

Here what I would like to try and do.

1. Create my projects
2. Have a singular backlog
3. Drop backlog items into projects and create sprints
4. Be able to see all my sprints on the dashboard.

I think my overall concern comes from having to add issues to projects instead of just having a general backlog where I can put all my issues and then separate them later and then also have a consolidate dashboard of what I need to do pulling from all the projects I'm involved in.

Sorry for the amateur questions but appreciate any type of feedback.