Mastering the Art of the “Closing Shift”: Practical Routines for Busy Moms | Work Like A Mother, Episode 41

Marina Tolentino dives into the “closing shift” concept—a nightly routine designed to help moms reset their homes and minds for a smooth start the next day. Drawing inspiration from her past in the hospitality industry, Marina shares how this simple practice can transform chaotic evenings into moments of calm and clarity. From kitchen clean-ups and prepping for tomorrow’s hustle, to winding down with intention, she covers actionable tips that busy moms can easily incorporate into their routines. Tune in for a quick dose of motivation and leave feeling empowered to tackle the messiest of days with grace and humor. Plus, discover why this simple shift can be a game-changer for your sanity and productivity. Don’t miss this chance to reset, recharge, and reclaim your evenings!

Marina Tolentino
https://www.marinatolentino.com/
Instagram
YouTube
Get Work Like A Mother delivered directly to your inbox! Click here.

Listen to Work Like A Mother
Apple
Spotify
Or any of your favorite platforms!


Affiliate Links to Save You $$$
Moo
Nuuly
CE Shop
Flodesk
Amazon Storefront
Castmagic
OpusClip
Oura

Transcript

0:00

It's okay to have a shit show house sometimes, and it's okay to be a frazzled mess. But I know from my heart that we are all doing the best that we can with what we've got. Right? And as long as we keep that in our minds and in our hearts, that I'm doing the best that I can with what I've got today. And that's enough. You can have grace, and you can sleep well, and your kids know it. You know? So I'm really, really practicing, trying to be intentional, trying to be present, trying to be respectful with everybody, and being an example for my kids of what that looks like. Alrighty, it's just me again today. So you know what that means. It's another quickie episode, which I love because they're bite sized. And you can just get a quick hit of inspiration and motivation on your drive, on your morning commute. You name it, I'm here for it. We're gonna keep this one short. Less than ten minutes for sure. So let's dive into some weekly routines that I do to maintain my quality of life, my clean sanity in a busy household with a four year old and a nine year old, and juggling multiple businesses on the daily. And I'm gonna go specifically, specifically into detail about an opening shift and a closing shift in your home. So let's dive in. So, to kick this off, I'm going to preface this with, this isn't obvious, but I am not perfect, right? So there are weeks that I stick to my routines. I hit every single checkbox and little mental to do that I have, and I wake up with a beautiful, clean kitchen, and it's amazing. But then there are weeks like this week, for example, where I've been traveling back to back. I haven't even put away all the stuff in my suitcase. The laundry is piling up. My kitchen is a disaster. There's, like, constantly dishes in the sink. Right? So let's just preface this, that we are all human and moms are doing the best that we can every day of the week. Okay? So, with that being said, let's talk about weekly routines. And I would even just say daily routines on ways to stay organized and feel like you kind of got your grasp on life without feeling like you're gonna chop your own head off. Like, feeling frazzled and overwhelmed all the time. And so I know one of the reasons that I get triggered often, especially if I've been gone all day and I'm coming back home, or you just, like, haven't had a moment to yourself and everything seems like a freaking bomb went off in your house. These are some ways that help me minimize that stress and love on my family a little bit more. So I'm going to actually start with the nighttime closing shift. And I think I said in the intro, opening and opening, it's a closing shift at night and an opening shift in the morning. And so when you think about that phrase closing shift, it actually comes from the hospitality industry, where I've heard this before, but I very much relate to it. I used to be a service. I worked in a wine bar and restaurant, and then I worked in a french cafe and bakery. And so closing shift, you are cleaning everything out, meaning you're getting rid of everything that's old, you're putting everything away, and you're sanitizing everything else, and you're also preparing for the next morning. So it's a little bit of everything. You're doing breakdown and you're also doing setup at night. Closing shift is pivotal. Hey, ladies, real quick. If you are looking for a mentor, I just wanted to remind you that I offer mentorship to entrepreneurs. So if you're someone who has a never ending to do list and you're smiling out of control and feel like your business doesn't have a track plan, I want to work with you every single week for a month at a time. It's super simple, but I come from over ten years of experience doing this myself, and now I'm willing to give. That information back to people. So I've mentored real estate agents, I've mentored wedding photographers, I've mentored other business owners, and they've come from a place of overwhelm, mostly. And they really just needed clarity and a couple of action steps to move the needle. And we've seen gigantom leaps and bounds in their business. Like, I can't even tell you. So if you're interested and you want. To know what that looks like, I want you to go to marinatolentino.com and there's a calendly link there to do a 15 minutes discovery call with me. Just to see if we're a good. Vibe check to make sure we're on the same page. And I would love to work with you one on one to really boost your business to the next level. Let's dive back in now. I will say now that my nine year old is a little bit older, he can semi help with dinnertime cleanup. Like, he's putting stuff condiments back away in the fridge. Right? He can put the dishes in the sink, at least for me, and he can help me unload the dishwasher. That's all part of the stuff that he's helping out. The four year old is helpless at this stage, let's be honest. But once I get that done, like, we're at least doing a minimal kitchen cleanup. It's not going to be the deep clean yet, because I go straight from dinner to bed and showers and stuff. Um, at least we're, like, starting. So then once the kids are in bed, then we take our moment to just do ten minutes, ten minute cleanup, as much as you can, as much as possible before the next day. Um, so sometimes what I'll do is I'll put on a timer because it helps me really stay focused to be like, okay, only have ten minutes. What can I do? And I just start at, like, the front door even, and, like, pick up all the crap that's all over the place. So whether that's a backpack that's strewn or toys on the console, and then I'm walking through the living room and just throwing things into a basket, knowing that I can put the basket away later. But if it's just the visual clutter is contained to one big basket, I already feel like I'm winning. Then if we work on the kitchen, we're doing a full wipe down of all the countertops and the dining table. We're pushing the chairs back in. I'm definitely cleaning out the sink and loading up the dishwasher, starting a load. Sometimes, if I'm an a student, I will actually prep my coffee for the next morning. You know, I'll clean my coffee pot. I'll put water in, put the grinds in. So all I have to do when I wake up is hit that on button. I've never been so much of an overachiever to program it. Although that sounds dreamy. I don't know. I just haven't got there yet. But let's imagine this kitchen is cleaned, wiped down. I do love my little handheld vacuum that I'll pick up, like, kind of spot vacuum, all the crumbs from dinner or around the stools and stuff. Again, it just helps minimize the visual clutter, because when I'm constantly walking through the kitchen and I see crumbs, it drives me insane. So the little, like, pick up spots with the vacuum is a lifesaver. Then I get to my bedroom. We're doing wind down routine. Drawing the curtains in, lamp goes on. I'm really trying to set the tone and tell my body that it's time to wind down. I don't shower until my room is ready for bed because when I come out of the shower, I want to make sure I'm like. Like we just had the most intense dinner shower routine ever and it always feels rushed a little bit and like, everybody gotta hurry up because I

am very much a stickler on bedtime. 08: 6:21

00 is sharp so that I get my one to 2 hours of wind down time and hubby time. Hey, I'm sorry to interrupt and I. Hope you're enjoying this episode of the work like a mother podcast real quick. I just want to remind you guys, if you are worried about missing an. Episode, you don't have to worry anymore. Because we are creating a weekly email that's going to go out automatically every single time there's a brand new episode. And this email is going to have everything you need to know about this week's featured guests. It's going to have all of the links and the resources that we're going to talk about in this episode so you don't have to go around and fumble through the show notes. But it's me served in your inbox every single week. So if you guys want that access, be sure to click below one time in the show notes today. Sign up for that email and then you'll never have to worry about it in the future. And bonus, if you really love this, we'd love it if you share this with a friend. Give us a review on whatever platform you're listening to and we'll continue to bring new episodes and new information that's going to help you level up your life every single week. So that's kind of wind down routine. Another thing I do during the closing shift is I prepare my gym clothes for the next morning. So I pull those out. I put them out outside my bedroom door so I'm not interrupting my husband's sleep when I get up at 530. And I only work out like three days a week on average. But I am also preparing my pre workout and my amino acids and my what else do I take? Creatine. All of that is packed up in my purse, ready to go so that I can literally, like put on my gym clothes, brush my teeth, grab my water bottle, and then run out the door. Cause if there's any extra stops in the morning, I get behind schedule. And then I'm like starting to get flustered that I'm not gonna get my full hour of alone time in the morning. So in a nutshell, that is the closing shift. Okay, so declutter. Put as much crap you can into a basket so the visual clutter is out of sight. Knowing at some time and space you will be able to put that away where it actually all belongs. Bonus points if you actually get to put it away. But honestly, for me, just getting the visual clutter out of sight into a basket is great. Also, side note, this could be a fun game for your kids that you put it all in the basket and then they have to figure out where it all goes and whoever gets the most things put away gets an extra chocolate bar. I don't know. You guys can decide what that win win is. Maybe ten extra minutes of bluey. But that's kind of closing shift. So when you're going to bed, things are clean and tidy so that when you wake up there's no instant stress. Of all the visual clutter. To me, having a messy dining table is one of those things that it just is like an extra mental clutter for me. So having a clean dining table and countertop is priceless. Okay, so then let's move into the opening shift so you rise and shine and we've got our gym on our three days. The two days that I don't go to the gym week, I am just having extra reading time in the morning. I love to do my bible and slowly sip my coffee for 20 to 30 minutes. Or maybe I'm just being present with the kids with my phone put away in the morning and I'm enjoying breakfast. Like that's really sacred to me. And then honestly, it's just making sure that we're tidying up. But we prepared for the first part of the day, so sometimes again it is in the morning. If I have five extra minutes, I'm going to clean out the dishes. It's so tempting to just like pile all the coffee cups in and walk away until lunch. But just having that extra couple minutes to reset breakfast is also sanity saving in the long run. Another opening shift thing is I do a mental to do list every morning and this could be done during your closing shift if you were really proactive and you had this long list of things to do. But for me, because so much communication can happen over email during the night and slack messages and stuff that I like to do it in the morning after I have my coffee, I'm just checking in with email and my slack real quick and then I'm mentally jogging down. What are my three biggest priorities I must

do by 05: 10:16

00 p.m. today. And then those are the first three things I attack. If I'm not starting my meeting with Zoom meetings and I have a little bit of breathing room, knock them out of the park. That way you're already winning. And honestly, every day is different. You guys know that I'm homeschooling right now, and we've just added my preschooler into the mix with this. She just left her preschool in June, so I'm homeschooling preschool, which takes me about 30 minutes. And then fourth grade with my son is about an hour and a half to 2 hours a day. So we're looking at two and a half to 3 hours of homeschool. It could be less. It could be more. But on average, it's been working out really well that I do the preschooler during breakfast because she's pretty easy and it's fun. And my fourth grader actually likes to get involved and help out, too. And then when the preschooler is napping in the afternoon from like one to three, that's when we get my fourth graders work in, where it's one on one mommy time. There's less distractions, and he can just knock it out and be easy and done. There is, obviously, like I said, no day is the same. So some days we might hit that schedule, like, on point and be amazing and be in and out and done so they can go play. And sometimes it's. It's just an emotional mess. And we say, nope, we're not doing school today. So, like I said, you guys, like, we are all humans. And I just want to, like, really hear that this is authentic, and it's okay to have a shit show house sometimes. And it's okay to be a frazzled mess. But I know from my heart that we are all doing the best that we can with what we've got, right? And as long as we keep that in our minds and in our hearts that I'm doing the best that I can with what I've got today. And that's enough. You can have grace, and you can sleep well, and your kids know it, you know? So I'm really, really practicing trying to be intentional, trying to be present, trying to be respectful with everybody, and being an example for my kids of what that looks like. But anyways, I hope this episode was maybe some reminders that you could implement, more importantly, a closing shift and maybe a mini opening shift. The opening shift really would be, like before the kids wake up. If you need to do any extra tidying up or cleanup or prep and stuff. Dude, even taking stuff out of the freezer and having it thaw during the day, that counts as an opening shift task, so I hope that helps. I would love to hear feedback from you guys. What you think about doing a closing shift if you've tried it. Maybe I missed something that you think is like, must do. I would love a DM on Instagram if you want to connect with me there and go ahead and share this episode with another girlfriend that you know could benefit from this or any of the other episodes we've had. I know we've had some incredible interviews, and we have more lined up for you, so I'm so excited to keep sharing more. So I will hear from you guys and see you next week. Bye.