Warning: This is a rant. Once, when in school, I went to the principal to get some papers signed. It was the first time I was entering his office. I knocked at

Warning: This is a rant. Once, when in school, I went to the principal to get some papers signed. It was the first time I was entering his office. I knocked at the door, and pat came a reply to enter. He was sitting behind a desk that had nothing on it, no papers, files or books. Nothing! He was sitting there with his hands on the desk. I got my papers signed immediately and came out of the office thinking, does this person even work? :) I went to him at 9:30am, and there he was sitting idle! Few years after that incident, I read an article by a prominent Indian atomic research scientist. He was describing an incident that was similar to the one I had experienced at the school principal's office. He once went to the head of the Bhabha Atomic Research Center(BARC) in India at 9:00am, and the desk of the head of BARC was clear, no paper work, files or anything. And the scientist quickly got his work done at the office of the head of BARC. The scientist narrated this experience to his boss, who was a friend of the head. The boss said that the head of BARC wakes up at 4:00am, his work starts at 5, by 9:00am he is available to anyone in the company. His own work he completes between 5-9am, and most of the rest of the day he makes himself available to others at the company. The clear desk that the scientist saw was not because the head has less work, but because he had already completed his own work before 9:00am. The clear the desk of the head of an institution, the more efficient s/he is. Tim Cook of Apple has similar schedule. Leaders of any organisation have to wake up early, otherwise they get little done. There are health benefits of this as well. I use to be a night owl. One day an email arrived in my official inbox. It was from one of the VPs of the company. He had just returned back from a long stay at a hospital due to illness. He urged all young engineers to not treat being night owl as some sign of hard work, badge of honour or habit. It seriously damages the health in the long run, like his own. I had heard this advise from so many elders in the industry that I changed my schedule. I use to drink a lot of coffee and tea as well, even that changed. Few years ago, when my father was seriously ill and in the ICU, one day I saw a new patient on the bed next to my father's. The new patient was very young, ~30 years old guy. I asked the nurse, did he meet with an accident? And the nurse said, "No, he had an heart attack. He is a software professional. We get many software professionals in the hospital with similar problem. Their life-style is bad." Remember this old proverb: "Early to bed, and early to rise, makes a person healthy, wealthy and wise."