When I started a new job last month, I was surprised (and strangely delighted) that the employees didn't use any kind of instant messaging. No Slack or anything like it.

The company has a flexible work culture. Some people work in the office every day, some work remotely, and some do both, with a few days in the office and a few days working from home. Even though employees work from various locations, instant messaging isn't the way they keep in touch. The primary communication method is...wait for it...

Email. 

Written, asynchronous communication. That's the way people at my new workplace communicate most of the time. 

I've read a lot about the benefits of defaulting to written communication and asynchronous work, most especially in books written by the Basecamp team. But up until now, I haven't worked at a company that operated like that.

And so far, I love it.

My previous job was at a marketing agency, so I was used to go, go, go all the time. It was a hectic environment, made worse by multiple communication channels to pay attention to on a daily basis:
 

That's seven methods of communication. SEVEN. To stay on top of. Every day.

I didn't realize the mental effort it took to pay attention to all those communication flows, until I didn't have to do that anymore.

Now I have email. One primary method of communication. And if someone needs to get a hold of me for something urgent, they can call me on the phone.

But otherwise, I go about my day working on projects in stretches of uninterrupted time. And it's amazing.

I believed that it doesn't have to be crazy at work, but now I actually see it.