As companies transition to remote work due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Grafana Labs shares insights from its remote-first culture to enhance productivity, especially through effective use of Slack. Key practices include configuring Slack to add new lines with the Enter key, using markup formatting for clearer communication, and setting reminders to avoid the pressure of real-time responses. Users can manage message priorities by marking them as unread, setting message reminders, or saving important messages, with saved items functioning as a personal to-do list. Channel management is optimized by categorizing them into starred, regular, and muted, allowing users to focus on critical discussions while reducing distractions. Additionally, sorting channels by priority rather than alphabetically enables users to address the most important messages first, ultimately encouraging a more intentional and organized approach to handling Slack communications.