From my own experience I started to larn a few openings as white and black but when it came to the middle and end game I was out of my depth.
Beginner suggestions
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Work on an opening for white and black that you like (Usually a solid e4 / e5 opening is good to start with). As you get more experience, you will venture further into opening depth.
The middle game is a great for tactics, since there are many pieces on the board and therefore many opportunities. Tactics are the bread and butter of chess - practicing tactics will make you improve quickly. At a later stage you will also go deeper into strategy, but most games are decided by tactics.
And finally, dont neglect endgames. You will reach them sooner or later, and you need to know what to do and how to win a winning endgame. You don't have to go through complicated endgames - that will come later. A King + Queen vs. King is an endgame. A King + Rook + Pawn vs. King + Rook is an endgame, and an important one. Start with the basics, then continue as your understanding and readiness improve.
For further progress, analyse your games (especially the ones lost, seeing where you made mistakes, and how you could improve). Later you might consider going through some master games for your opening - or perhaps just read a book.
Learn some openings and stick to them. As masters suggests create a opening repertoire that suits your playing style.
Endgames should also be studied well as they improve our middle game too! Studying endgames will really improve your game.
For the middle game solving puzzles is all i can suggest.
Equal time should be given to all these things as all the phases are equally important. But a little extra time should be given to opening study as it will give you a better middle and end game.
Hope that helps.
I have a quick question I'd like to hear some thoughts on...
Which part of the game should a beginner spend the majority of his study time on? Opening theory, middle or endgame? Obviously you need to learn and become efficient in all phases, but I'm wondering if there is some validity to the idea of "reverse engineering" you chess game? There is nothing more frustrating than spending 30+ minutes of my life playing a game only to feel clueless in the complexity of the ending.. Right now I kind of bounce around with my studying trying to absorb anything that I can.. Should I be more specific with my time just a few weeks into my "chess life"