Always had the same problem on LJ and through some of my time on DW. How I remember now is "Previous: older; Next: newer" which sort of helps my brain stop flailing so I can decide which link to click.

(Now I wonder did we have s2 on LJ to reverse the link order because I agree it should be the other way around. And now I wonder what it'd take to reverse it in s2 over here...)

(And thinking about making a formal suggestion for the ability to flip them around (if I haven't already, heh) but that might wander into "too many features" territory, I don't know.)