By Dave Coplin, Chief Envisioning Officer, Microsoft UK
With the summer nearing its end, workers and students across Europe are returning from their adventures to offices and classrooms. Inspired by the change of seasons, we decided to explore the fun factor of big data; digging deep into Bing traffic peaks to discover which European nations are first out of bed and online.
![WakeUpEurope_Thumb[1]](https://news.microsoft.com/wp-content/uploads//2015/03/WakeUpEurope_Thumb1.png)
We found that the ever-efficient Germans welcome the new day earlier than any other nation, with Berliners getting an impressive 24 minute head start compared to any other capital we looked at. This adds up to an extra 104 hours a year! By contrast, Madrid was the sleepiest capital city of the five major European countries: be it the joys of the late night tapas or the colorful nightlife, citizens of Madrid woke up to Bing almost 40 minutes later than our friends in Berlin.
It was the United Kingdom that was home to some of the earliest and latest risers. The Scots take their time in the morning, with residents of Edinburgh only logging on at 8.55am. But it’s the Northern Irish who are slowest starters: people in Belfast welcome the day the last in Europe, getting online one minute before 9am. It’s a different story in the south, with London city dwellers opening Bing at 8.30am – ranking second of the European searchers we examined. Parisians were not far off from the old rivals across the Channel, only waking up two minutes later than Londoners.
But it’s not all about how many minutes you have in a day, it’s about how you use them. Below are our tips on how to be your most productive self in the morning!
We’ve all got our morning routines, from reading the newspaper in bed over a cup of coffee to diving out the door ten minutes after your head has left the pillow. But from the moment you hear the piercing sound of the alarm clock to when you’ve conquered the daily commute, being smart about your use of technology can help you tackle your to-do list head-on and minimize the time spent gazing at a screen, so you can concentrate on what’s most important.
2-in-1 devices running Windows 8.1, such as the Surface Pro 3, combine the power of a laptop and portability of a tablet with a detachable keyboard; meaning that you can stay up late watching Netflix and keep up with work, all in one device. And if work has crept home, you can use the commute to read and amend the document you didn’t finish last night with Office 365 that allows you to access documents across Office applications from PowerPoint to Excel via OneDrive, on any device. Combining with Microsoft’s note-taking app OneNote means that you can capture those precious eureka moments wherever you are, and even record an audio note if you don’t feel like typing.
To upgrade from the free commuter newspaper, try Weave, a news reader that allows you to follow any website or blog, along with a huge set of built-in news sources grouped by categories such as world events. Or tap into the People Hub on your Windows device, where you can keep up-to-date with social networks to see the latest from your nearest and dearest at a glance.
What’s your sharpest tip on how to be productive in the morning? Tweet us at @MSEurope –we’d love to hear from you!
