We present a new framework for characterizing quasinormal modes (QNMs) or resonant states for the wave equation on asymptotically flat spacetimes, applied to the setting of extremal Reissner-Nordstr"om black holes. We show that QNMs can be interpreted as honest eigenfunctions of generators of time translations acting on Hilbert spaces of initial data, corresponding to a suitable time slicing. The main difficulty that is present in the asymptotically flat setting, but is absent in the previously studied cases of asymptotically de Sitter or anti de Sitter sub-extremal black hole spacetimes, is that $L2$-based Sobolev spaces are not suitable Hilbert space choices. Instead, we consider Hilbert spaces of functions that are additionally Gevrey regular at infinity and at the event horizon. We introduce $L2$-based Gevrey estimates for the wave equation that are intimately connected to the existence of conserved quantities along null infinity and the event horizon. We relate this new framework to the traditional interpretation of quasinormal frequencies as poles of the meromorphic continuation of a resolvent operator and obtain new quantitative results in this setting.