I have a main loop with structure like:

void main()
{
     init();
     while(1)
     {
          if( task_1_fg )
               task_1();
          if( task_2_fg )
               task_2();
          if( task_3_fg )
               task_3();
     }
}

The optimizer is configured to optimize for small space because the program is nearing the maximum size. However, functions like task_1(), task_2(), and task_3() are only called from this main loop. I think the code might run faster (and possibly even be smaller) if these functions were placed inline (so there is not actually a function call but just a series of instructions). However, I think it is much easier to read and manage to have it structured as functions. I thought I could use the "inline" keyword when declaring these functions to give the compiler a hint to try to convert these functions to inline code, but I get errors like "Syntax error near 'void'" when I try to do the following:

inline void task_1()
{
     .....
}

Could you advise me of the correct way to do this?
Thanks in advance.