For me sticking to a schedule by time has helped me keep on track the most! We close at 9 so starting breakdown by 4 or 5 is a must, then start floors by 7:30 while I do the safe count and drop tills so we only have two on the floor, then temps and pulling food going out for the night at 8:30. Also role clarity is super big making sure everyone knows what task to be working on when their roll on the floor doesn’t have customers

8:30 close (I typically come in at 2; 27 barista)
Floors done by 3
Cold bar done by 5 at the latest
All backups done by close
Dishes run through out the shift
It’s helpful for my shift to start food pull asap and have first couple of tills done by 6 (or during/after 1st lunch break)
It’s also super helpful to have bathrooms cleaned and lobby floors swept and mopped before the pre-close leaves (6/7)
This is then usually a good time to start/finish milk count and temps
Then I typically clean and pill 2 of our bars by 7:45/8ish
And from there it’s just EOD dishes, floor set up, and BOH floors.
This is what works best for the store I’m at right now. We have been consistently clocking out about 5-15 minutes past 9.

We close at 9:30, breakdown we usually start between 3:45-4:45, depends on how busy we are. Obviously more busy we are latter we start but 5 is the latest usually. Tables, floors, trash around 7:30-7:45 again depends how busy we are. We usually keep our bathroom close during the last 45 min. Our SM is okay with it, make sure yours is okay as well being technically that is against Corp policy. We usually able to be out 20-30 after closing. Try to do dishes whenever you can, it helps a lot when it comes to closing.