What happens when giving your time away actually gives something meaningful back to you?

On Volunteerism: “Have boundaries, have an exit strategy, know what you’re prepared to do, because otherwise it can become all encompassing.” Elizabeth Ducie May 2026

In this heartfelt conversation, Michelle sits down with author and volunteer leader Elizabeth Ducie to explore how volunteerism can reshape your life, your productivity, and your sense of purpose.

Despite some unexpected recording challenges during this episode, Michelle felt it was incredibly important to share Elizabeth’s story and wisdom with listeners. Sometimes in life, and in podcasting, you can only put so much time into perfecting something before you have to trust that the people who truly need the message will still find it. Michelle hopes this episode encourages you to do exactly that.

Elizabeth shares her remarkable journey from working in a male-dominated engineering industry to becoming an active volunteer, charity trustee, fundraiser, and acting CEO of a cancer support charity in southwest England. Along the way, she opens up about burnout, boundaries, intentional living, and how volunteer work can unexpectedly become one of the most meaningful parts of life.

• How volunteering can reshape your perspective on productivity and purposeful living
• Why setting boundaries and having an exit strategy is essential in volunteer work
• How burnout can develop even when you are doing meaningful work you care about
• How the 42 Minute Hour helped Elizabeth reclaim time for writing and creativity
• Why volunteering can become one of the most rewarding and intentional uses of your time

Michelle and Elizabeth also discuss the importance of recognizing when productivity is no longer about doing more, but about intentionally choosing where your energy belongs. It is a powerful reminder that giving back to others can also help you rediscover yourself.

You can learn more about Elizabeth Ducie, her cozy crime novels, and the Coombsford Chronicles series on her official website: https://elizabethducie.co.uk/

If this conversation resonated with you, please follow, share, and review Your Productivity Pulse. Join my community and receive your FREE Time Disruptor Checklist. https://preview.mailerlite.io/forms/28276/163127936437716794/share

Your support helps more people discover practical and intentional ways to reclaim their time and create meaningful lives.

1. Start small
2. You do not need to commit to dozens of hours a week. Begin with one committee, one event, or one afternoon each month.
3. Identify your strengths
4. Think about what skills you already have. Organizations often need help with administration, finances, communication, technology, events, and leadership.
5. Set boundaries early
6. Before committing, decide how much time you realistically have available and communicate those limits clearly.
7. Choose something meaningful
8. Look for a cause that genuinely connects to your values or personal experiences. Purpose makes the time feel worthwhile.
9. Have an exit plan
10. Volunteer roles can grow quickly. Knowing your timeline and limits helps prevent burnout and keeps the experience positive.

The Wake-Up Call "In that moment, time stopped feeling endless — and suddenly every minute mattered." — Michelle Oucharek-Deo, Your Productivity Pulse Ep. 20

In this deeply personal episode, Michelle Oucharek-Deo shares the story of a near-death experience at 18 that quietly shaped the way she thinks about time, purpose, and productivity to this day.

While working two jobs and running on empty, early one morning Michelle found herself clinging to a toolbox on a flatbed truck as it rolled backwards down a ravine. In the seconds that followed, time did something unexpected and in that suspended moment, she caught her first real glimpse of what it means to actually live, rather than simply push through. Decades later, that moment has become a foundation of her work helping others use their time more intentionally.

In this episode Michelle explores:

• What near-death experiences teach us about time and priority and why you don't necessarily have to go through one to reset the way you are using your time.
• How creativity and nature became Michelle's first time tools for processing, healing and personal revaluation of how you can use your minutes with more meaning.
• The seeds of the Time Core Strategy System, and how they were planted in the aftermath of the accident that summer.

At the end of the episode, Michelle introduces a powerful self-reflection practice she calls the Ravine Reset Question — a simple but honest pause you can take any time, no crisis required.

Step 1: Find 10 minutes. No phone. No multitasking. No scrolling.

Ask yourself:

Step 2: Then ask:

Because sometimes transformation doesn't begin with a giant leap. Sometimes it begins with one honest question.

Listeners are invited to join Michelle's community to access the When Time Stops You in Your Tracks reflection worksheet — a ten-question guide designed to help you explore your relationship with time, purpose, burnout, and intentional living at your own pace.

👉 Join my Community: Download your free reflection guide here

https://preview.mailerlite.io/forms/28276/187782348619646863/share

Grab you FREE Time Distruptor Checklist Today and join my community where you can start to redeifine what productivity means to you.

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What can happen when you stop trying to schedule every minute of your day?

Sometimes the most meaningful moments can arrive in the quiet spaces we leave open for surprise, reflection, and wonder. Inspired by an unexpected visit to Mile Zero in Victoria, BC, this deeply personal episode explores the power of intentional time, emotional connection, and the ripple effect one person can have on the world.

Michelle Oucharek-Deo shares a moving reflection on Terry Fox, the Marathon of Hope, and how a simple unscheduled walk became a powerful reminder 'that productivity is not only about efficiency and calendars. Sometimes productivity is devotion, courage, purpose, and choosing to dedicate our time to something larger than ourselves.'

Along the way, Michelle explores the beauty of tiny everyday surprises, emotional tears, gifts of time and the importance of creating space for meaningful experiences to find us.

This episode is an invitation to slow down, leave room for curiosity, and reconnect with what truly matters. If Terry Fox’s story inspires you, you can learn more or make a donation through the Terry Fox Foundation. https://terryfox.org/

Thank you for listening to Your Productivity Pulse. Be sure to follow, share the podcast with a friend, and download the FREE Time Disrupter Checklist.

Remember, intention plus accountability equals productivity.

Thank you Michelle

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There comes a moment when the structure that once felt safe starts to feel limiting. What happens when you step away from it and suddenly your time is entirely your own? That freedom can feel exciting, overwhelming, and a little messy all at once.

In this conversation, Carrie Bokser shares her journey from working in structured financial environments to building a successful mortgage business on her own terms. Along the way, she opens up about the real challenges of managing time without a set schedule, balancing family life, and creating systems that actually work in the real world.

• How to transition from structured work to self-managed time

• Why traditional time blocking does not always work for entrepreneurs

• Simple ways to create flexibility while staying productive and present

If this conversation resonated with you, be sure to follow Your Productivity Pulse and share it with someone who is navigating their own time journey. Your support helps more people rethink how they use their time and build lives that truly align with what matters most.

Please feel free to contact Carrie Bokser and learn more about the services she offers. carrie@boksermortgages.ca

If something in this episode sparked a thought, a shift, or even a tiny action—don’t let it stop here.

👉 Download your FREE Time Disruptor Checklist and take your first intentional step:

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Gratitude is easy to feel, but what happens when you actually put it into action? In this episode, a simple moment and an unexpected act of care reveal how small, intentional choices can create a powerful ripple effect.

You will discover how gratitude can move beyond words and into meaningful action, creating a ripple effect that extends far beyond the moment. In this episode, you will learn:

• How small, intentional actions can create lasting impact in your life and others

• Why gratitude in action strengthens connection, mindset, and productivity

• How Intention, one of the foundations of Michelle's Time Core Strategy System, shapes the way you use your time

A special thank you to Bright Jenny Coffee for being part of this story. Their commitment to care, connection, and community is something you can truly feel. If you ever find yourself in Kelowna needing a good cup of coffee from a great company, it is well worth the visit. Take a moment to check out their offerings, learn more about their journey, and experience what intentional business looks like in action. https://www.brightjenny.ca/

If this message resonates with you, take a moment to follow, like, and share Your Productivity Pulse on your favorite platform.

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What if one of the most powerful tools for getting more done was something you already have access to in 60 seconds or less?

Whether you're overwhelmed, stuck, or just running low on energy, this one is worth a listen.

In this episode, we're exploring gratitude not as a feel-good ritual, but as a research-backed productivity strategy. Drawing on findings from Harvard Health, the University of Pennsylvania, the Wharton School, and the University of Texas, host Michelle Oucharek-Deo breaks down exactly why gratitude shifts your brain out of stress mode and into a state of intention and clarity.

Spoiler: a simple thank-you note can boost your energy, sharpen your focus, and even increase your output by up to 50%.

Michelle also shares a moving passage from her women's fiction novel The Girl in the Peachtree, where a small act of generosity sparks her character Maya's first journal entry in years — a beautiful real-world example of how gratitude can break through inertia and get us moving again.

The episode is a reminder that the conditions we're waiting for may never arrive, but what we already have might be exactly enough.

You'll walk away with a simple, repeatable technique The Three-Minute Gratitude Reset that fits perfectly into those small pockets of time you might otherwise throw away.

Technique You'll Learn: The Three-Minute Gratitude Reset

A quick-hit tool designed to use "pockets of time" — those small gaps in your day — to refocus your brain and shift from pressure into intention. It has three steps:

1. Stop — Pause what you're doing (or hold the thought if you're driving or walking).
2. Identify — Bring to mind one to three people who have made a meaningful impact on your life, recently or in the past.
3. Document — Spend three minutes writing or recording a short thank-you note. It can be a text, an email, a letter, or even a note to someone you've lost touch with. The act of writing it is what counts.

PS. If you'ld like to check out Michelle's Women's Fiction series Wine, Love and Friendship you're in for a real treat.

Grab your FREE Time Disruptor Checklist and Join my Community Today

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Breaking your biggest dream into tiny, achievable steps is the secret most goal-setting advice skips entirely.

In this episode of Your Productivity Pulse, Michelle Oucharek-Deo introduces the three-rung goal ladder and follows Ruby, a 32-year-old turning her dream of becoming a nurse practitioner into reality, one ten-minute task at a time.

Michelle breaks down her signature Steep-T system and ten-minute timer method, showing you how to reverse engineer big goals, run the cost and value equation on major life decisions, and build a daily rhythm that actually sticks. Listeners Antoinette, Renee, and Holly also share their own real-life ten-minute mini goals, proving that small consistent actions are what truly move the needle.

If you have been carrying a dream that feels too big to start, this episode will change the way you think about progress. Mini goals are not about thinking small. They are about building momentum, one checkmark at a time, until the life you imagined becomes the life you are living.

DM Michelle on Linked In with your Ten Minute Timers Suggestions. https://www.linkedin.com/in/moucharekdeoauthor/

Grab your FREE Time Disrupter Checklist and join my Community.

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What if the one thing standing between you and your most productive week isn't your calendar or your to-do list, but the absence of someone in your corner?

This episode digs into one of the most foundational pillars of the Time Core Strategy System: Accountability. We break down the difference between intrinsic and extrinsic accountability, walk through a simple step-by-step process for setting realistic goals that actually stick, and explore how accountability cafes and virtual coworking tools like Focusmate are quietly changing the way people show up for their work. Real talk about a chaotic month, a perfectly timed invitation, and what it actually looks like to build a system that supports your life and not the other way around.

Sometimes the most productive thing you can do is put one thing down and pick something else up. Grab the free Time Disrupter Checklist in the show notes and start noticing what is getting in your way.

During the Episode I mentioned the Site: Focusmate. Check out the link if you are interested in learning more about this cool Accountability Tool. https://www.focusmate.com/