(This might get buried deep in the thread, but if you find it, read it)

I am assuming you are from India. I'm from Bangalore. I was in a very similar condition like yours.

I definitely can understand if you are staying in a city like Bangalore/Major-Indian-Metro, and have to travel and endure long traffic jams. And one more thing you should know about stuff like "flexible timings" is under the absence of discipline and good enough managers these policies will ultimately drive you to a disaster. There fore first get yourself a time table. As much as the teenagers may shout at this calling 'mediocrity' or whatever. Getting disciplined helps more than you can imagine.

To start with you should begin traveling in low-traffic hours. Start early from home, reach office early. I tend to follow GTD, if you like you can follow that too. Finish all important tasks by lunch. By the looks of what you say, you should be done with all your work by the time others are in office and settle down. There fore your afternoon will be spent in meetings, after your productive hours are exhausted. Leave office at exactly 5.

On the long term, keep a notebook. You should have a clear list[Not ambiguous/vague tasks] a goal with a clear end state. Plan your work and prioritize it, in the importance of what's best for you and the project. Refuse to sweat the small stuff. Meticulous pick only the most important parts of the project. If there just isn't any important work out there, talk to your manager and see if there are other projects around you and get transferred there. If there are absolutely no good projects in the company, please look for a new job. Please don't waste time sweating the small stuff. You are in your 20's and this is the kind of time you should be working on tough problems and building all the experience you would need later. You can do all this by having 1-1 meeting with your manager every 15 days. Write down what he expects from you, what you have achieved in the past 15 days from the goals set in previous 1-1 and if he is acknowledgement of all that.

Plan stuff and track all this in the notebook. Including your long term goals. Like learning a new framework, or buying a new car. Review how you are progressing every Saturday night, and take corrective steps necessary. And most important. Never forget to assign 'Next steps' to every task you complete. Because that's how new opportunities pop up.

Post 5 PM in the evening you should get decent time for your personal projects.

Lastly keeping a notebook has a its own advantages. You can see the timeline of what you've been planning, what you've been achieving, and what corrective actions you would like to take or have been taking. It will also give a complete record of everything you've done. Might just come in handy during a appraisal or a review session someday.

Humans are pretty bad at visualizing big timelines and structures, and remembering stuff. Without a record you will be lost, as time passes you won't know where you are. How much time you've lost. Heck you won't even what you did a week back and how you spent your time. This is why most of us feel much time has passed without we achieving any thing substantial. Because we don't have a record what we originally wanted, what steps we took, and what corrective actions and next steps we took. So at the end it just feels like time is flying while we aren't achieving much in the meanwhile.