Somewhere between the humdrum meetings, the stringent deadlines, dealing with workspace distractions, a bout of more meetings crammed in, and trying to hit your monthly targets, it is normal to feel that your life is spinning on wheels in an endless loop.

The Millennials are known to be workaholics, and often bypass vacations to earn desperately and reach the height of Fortune 500 companies. But, the nerve-racking work ethic is found to be hurting the productivity, motivation levels, and making the employees feel burned out.

It is time to save yourself from anxiety.

Instead of floating in the sea of despair, make a commitment to get all the stuff done at work, leave early, and spend time with your family.

Despite how difficult it seems, there are ways in which you can work during the day and don’t feel like being an extra on The Walking Dead.

Here are 5 productivity hacks that can help you finish things fast and leave early for home.

1. Make a ‘to do’ list of VIP tasks only

It sure feels great to cross off things in your to-do list. And, certainly jotting down important tasks for the day is a smart way to start your day/week.

But to make good on your commitments, do your tasks need to be written on a piece of paper just for the sake of ticking them off?

“These tasks should not even make it to your to do list.”, said Matt Girvan, president and co-founder of My Gung Ho.

“Do you have a task which takes less than 5 minutes? Do it instantly.” Girvan further elucidates in an interview with Mic, that, “Most people will write down a pile of small tasks to get done later or mark an email that needs a quick response as a low priority that can be dealt with in the future, thinking that this is a good system of prioritizing.”

The best approach is to avoid these micro-tasks from reaching into your to-do list. Adding small tasks in a to-do list just for the sake of making you feel good is not prudent at all.

2) Bundle similar tasks together

Sorry to break the bad news, but you won’t get a promotion or a reward for being a multitasking wizard.

In fact, juggling too many responsibilities at once destroys the quality of work for each and affects your overall performance.

If you’re multitasking, stop it at once. You might think that you’re doing yourself a favor, but, you’re just digging a much deeper hole for yourself.

As an alternative, you can group similar tasks together and delegate them on TaskQue. You might ask, why TaskQue? Because with TaskQue, you won’t have to worry about the status of each task. All the tasks will be on your fingertips and every project will be finished on time.

You can batch similar tasks together. For instance, you can plan out all the important phone calls in the morning so that you don’t have to make them while in a meeting or doing some important paperwork.

Batching together similar activities will help you get — and stay — in the right mindset to finish work more quickly and efficiently.

3) Micro-breaks to the rescue

Really? Yes, it is true.

As much as you want to complete all the tasks without wasting any time, studies show that regular breaks boost productivity.

It is better to work in short bursts of intense productivity. If you break your work into bite-sized chunks of time, you won’t get bored.

Instead of going back to back with calls and emails, just give a break to everything and relax your mind. Take deep breaths and you’ll see how energized you’ll feel.

4) Use the non-peak hours

Maybe there is a particular time when the water-cooler is swarmed with people. Instead of waiting, you can catch up with people and ask them for an update on the working projects.

Try to zig when everyone else zags.

Use the times when everyone else is not so busy, hustle, go talk to them, set an informal meeting with the client and clear out some important things.

Do things at a time when others aren’t. Go to lunch before or after the crowd. Use the copier before others get to work.

5) Get the best time-management tech to help you

Thanks to modern technology, the millennials now have access to the best time management & productivity apps.

Everybody has unique needs. Apps like TaskQue can help you keep track of the ongoing tasks and alert you when tasks are pending and need to be completed.

Furthermore, you can now have the power to give limited access to people who view your tasks. You can keep the tasks public or private. This feature helps in sharing the task with everyone without worrying about the project details leaking out.

None of these individual productivity hacks are all that big or ground-breaking. But if you combine even two or three of these tips, you could really have a big effect on your productivity.

Over to you…

What other productivity hacks do you know?