Sitting late in office

Recently came across a good speech by Narayana Murthy on the topic of sitting late in office.
He suggests the following guidelines to software engineers:
1) Wake up, eat a good breakfast, and go to work.
2) Work hard and smart for eight or nine hours.
3) Go home.
4) Read the comics, watch a funny movie, dig the dirt, play with your kids etc..
5) Eat well and sleep well.

In the formative years of my career, I used to work late in office. I just loved the work-place and it was exciting to spend productive evenings at work. Work was interspersed with liberal doses of TT and Badminton games. During one of those tight delivery schedules, I remember playing a game of badminton at 2 o'clock in the morning. Those were the days when I was self-motivated to spend more time at work.

But as time passed by and my work-place kept changing, the fun and excitement associated with late hours probably faded away somewhere into the background. Even now sometimes I tend to 'work' late in office (max till 10.00pm). But the reasons are quite different. Either they are due to work pressure or simply becoz I spent too much time in meetings or discussions during the day.

In the long run, it is definitely not a good habit to cultivate. Besides taking a toll on your social life, it drains you of all your energy and makes you a workalohic.