Less coffee, more breaks? I work the Charcoal way for a month to see if it makes a difference.
Watching the sizzle reel for the Charcoal standing desk is a window into a dystopian work landscape. These people are driven. They don’t blink, they stare forward, so intently focused on their work that they would rather fall down than stop.
One woman sits on her desk like some sort of productivity gargoyle, driven by the designs in front of her. Then the relief they desperately need comes in the form of a subtle blinking light and some well-placed haptics (though gargoyle McArty is getting buzzed under her butt). The Charcoal desk has saved them from the prison of their hyper-focused minds. They can stretch! They can breathe! They will know the faces of their loved ones again!
It’s all a bit much but the premise intrigued me. Can a desk be more than a place where you work? Can it also be part of your work process?
The Charcoal Desk app claims that 15 minute breaks at key mental stress points (and we’re talking complete breaks, no catching up on social media or doing non-work tasks) can dramatically affect your daily productivity. I committed to working the Charcoal way for a month to see if it actually worked.
My setup before this was an UPLIFT standing desk with a lovely reclaimed wood surface and a Fluidstance Plane Cloud balance board (sometimes the Springboard if I don’t feel like balancing).
While the desk has served my purposes well, there are things I don’t love about it. The frame can be a bit wobbly without frequent tightening of bolts and the cable management, even with UPLIFT’s rear cable trough, is frighteningly look poor. As long as you at my desk from the top…well you’ll still see a messy desk cluttered with toys but underneath is a snake’s den of power cables. Unfortunately, I do see that frequently because, unlike those driven creatives in the Charcoal video, I use the couch opposite my desk to sit and take the occasional (…or regular) nap.
So what could Charcoal do for me, then? Would it eliminate my desire for afternoon naps? Could it really get rid of coffee as it claims on the box?What Makes Charcoal Different?
The surface of the Charcoal desk is made from a acrylic that most closely resembles the surface of the trackpad on your Mac. The frame is Swedish-built and is quieter and more stable than motors you’ll find on less-expensive standing desks. It also comes with an integrated power strip and cable management cubby, with a cable organizer you can install wherever you like on your desk for charging cables and the like.
The desk has built-in haptics and is app-driven to track your time spent working, recommending breaks with haptics, a subtle alarm, and an LED indicator.
If it sounds expensive, it is. At $1,199 for a 48×27′ desktop, it’s nearly double the price of a comparably-sized standing desk.Putting Charcoal Together
Assembling the Charcoal desk is a relatively simple affair. It comes in two large boxes, one with the legs and cord cubby and the other with the desktop itself. The motor is built into the desktop. All you have to do is to bolt in and connect the raise/lower legs. The entire motor assembly is concealed with a magnetic panel for a clean finished look.
All that’s left is assembly of the cord organizer, which is essentially a large metal trough along the back of the desk. It’s got a ridiculous amount of room and, given how cumbersome cords can be, does an excellent job of tucking everything away.
The end result is a tidy desk assembly that instantly elevates the space that it’s in.
