Hello everyone!
I am new in here and new to this whole PhD journey...
So, I would like to ask something about it.
First to say, I apologize if my questions will be stupid... I think at our Faculty we don't have really highly developed PhD program, so we all (the PhD students) kind of feel lost at the moment. I have finished my first year (all the exams and all the lectures), and now in the next two years I need to focus on writing my PhD thesis. My mentor gave me a lot of books and it is a bit difficult to focus on all of them, since some of them only marginally touch the topic I'm interested in...

However, one of the questions that I've come up with is this issue of publishing. I don't quite understand the concept of this. I know that I am supposed to write a couple of papers in these two years, but I am not sure what they should be about? I mean, I know that generally I can send a paper about anything to any journal, but the thing is that I am wondering how other PhD students do this? Do you write papers with the topics that are linked to the very research you are doing for your PhD dissertation? Is that then supposed to help you because you are writing bits by bits and coming closer with your ideas to your final goal? Or are you just writing about anything of which you have considerable knowledge and research?
How many papers are you supposed to write? How often do you write?

I know that I am a bit stuck with all these books along with the full time job and I feel like my schedule is so hectic that I can't find time to properly think, let alone read. But I would like to find some pace in all this and it would be actually much easier if I had some way of organizing it all and writing at least small research papers that would help me to stay on track.

So, also, if you have any advice on how to organize my self and keep the rhythm of working on PhD, with the full time job (and normally being tired after work and still having to prepare something to eat and go to sleep at least at 10:30 pm because I get up at 6...), I would definitely highly appreciate it.

There is no such thing as a stupid question.

Publishing requires publishable research. Do good research and publishing will work itself out. Generally, PhD students take parts or chapters of their PhD and turn them into smaller standalone pieces of work that answer a smaller question. The paper usually has to be on a novel section of your thesis that would add to greater literature. Theoretically your PhD should yield at least one publishable paper although some lucky people can publish 3 or 4 of their PhD thesis. You can write the papers during or after your submission but it makes your viva easier if parts of your thesis has already been published. Usually your supervisor will help you convert your work into a paper format and guide you through the process. However, it is better to focus on doing the research first.

Are you doing a full-time PhD while working full-time? As that is difficult and I praise you for even doing a part-time PhD while working. Finding a rhythm can be difficult and I am not much help here. Other people on this forum have recommended setting certain times every week dedicated to your PhD.