Come Early. Leave Late

First lets talk about the benchmark times for arriving and leaving work.
For the rest of this chapter, I assume the start time to be the time your first meeting starts, or the time at which most of your team (your staff and peers) is expected to be at work, whichever is earlier. And the end time is the time your last meeting ends, or the time at which most of your team is expected to be leaving, whichever is later.

Get to work about an hour earlier than you need to. I know. If you're in a group that slaves over computers for masters in the west, then there is a chance that you're getting to and from work in small white cars with sharp scratches and dull drivers. Then I can't help you. But let me just say this. If a company dictates what time you come in, and what time you leave, I'll bet you're not really in control of much else either.
Get out of this situation.
You have to have control of some aspects of your job. You have to be trusted with making decisions. If you're not, get out of that job - or that organization - as soon as you can. And it starts with controlling when you come in.

Coming in early is not about showing your bosses and your peers what a hard worker you are, although that is a nice side benefit. Getting in an hour early gives you quiet time - get ahead of email, plan your day and get some thinking time.

And leave late. About 15 to 30 minutes later than the benchmark time above - no more. Staying much later than that shows one of two things.
Either you have no control over your situation. In which case, same argument as above, quit.
Or you have too much control over other people's situations. Again a change is called for. You need to delegate and get out of the way. If you're spending your time exercising your control over other people, you're building a wall in front of you that you can not climb over. Change this immediately - hire more people, restructure your group or just plain learn to let GO you micromanaging sonofabitch.
Use those extra 15 or 30 minutes for going through your to do list so you can recommit, delegate or confirm (More details in the next chapter). Or call a customer (or supplier) who is in a reasonable time zone. Ask him how he's doing and if he is satisfied with the way your team is serving him or talk about the last conversation where you left off. Call a different customer (or supplier) every day, and the same customer never more than twice a month - coz that would just be creepy.

And as a parting note: 2 caveats

1. We only talked above about the start and end times, and not aobut the duration in between. Here's my rule for the duration. Keep it to under 11 hours. I can bet that an average employee in your team (your staff and peers) works less than 9 hours a day. People like to SAY they work hard, but they dont. Some people spend a lot more than 9 hours at work, but they're not working for 9 hours a day. Still, if you assume that the average is 9, your additional hour and half puts you at 10 and half hours a day. Cap it at 11.
2. I expect that you should follow the advice above at least 200 out of 260 weekdays in a year. The other 60 are for holidays, vacations and crises - both personal and official - which will come up and force you to flout those rules. Less than 200 days, and you have to think about what changes you're going to make.