I like to procrastinate. For instance I knew it was time to write my column. Instead of starting on my column I checked Facebook first and became immersed in FarmVille and FarmTown.

I have found these two games are excellent in helping me to keep up with my procrastination. In case you have never heard of FarmVille or Farm Town, they are games on Facebook where you can create a farm, harvest and grow crops and chat with your neighbors.

I must admit when I first received an invitation to join FarmVille I was curious. I visited and accepted to help my friend. Then someone sent me my first tree and my first animal. I placed it anywhere and decided that maybe I should plant a crop or two. It is a lot of work even tending to an imaginary farm.

Suddenly I was helping out on other farms and a friend’s FarmTown image would pop up on my farm. We would decide to visit another friend’s farm and it was almost like having coffee at a friend’s house. We could only see our FarmTown personas but it didn’t stop us from renewing old friendships.

As I said earlier I like to procrastinate. I have realized that some of the things that I procrastinate about are things that stress me out, such as paying bills, or things that I am unsure about so I put them off. I also procrastinate if there is a chore or work that I do not like to do or I am not particularly good at and I know working at it is going to be a recipe for disaster.

In the past I have put things off by reading a book, watching television, puttering at crafts, playing solitaire on my computer or whatever I could find so I did not have to complete my task or even start it.

Then I found FarmVille and FarmTown. It sounds really stupid but there is something very relaxing about an imaginary farm and farming that imaginary computer farm. I love watching my crops grow because they are so pretty. I love the antics of the animals on my farm. My hands do not get dirty. It costs me no money. I chat with my friends who are old classmates that live in other cities. I come back to my work that I have procrastinated about refreshed and ready to jump in and tackle the project. I almost feel like I have been on a mini vacation.

I can’t explain it. I don’t understand it. I just enjoy it. I suspect many other people do too as my neighbors list is growing. If I am awake in the middle of the night I can farm for a few minutes and I am relaxed and I go back to sleep. It must be a new insomnia cure. I feel a little guilty because the man in my household and the son on Facebook make fun of my farming efforts.

These two men in my life have both reminded me to give it up since I burn vegetables. I didn’t tell them I can’t raise grapes on my farm. I never get them harvested in time. The men shake their heads, they tease me but I can laugh it off because remember, I am de-stressed after farming.

I can’t think of anything that I procrastinate about that is fun. With procrastination comes guilt of uncompleted tasks. I suppose there is little guilt to relaxing on my farm and not completing my tasks as quickly but the smile I have when I hear my cows mooing, and my other animals keeping up with the cow’s noise more than makes up for my guilt.

I have procrastinated about this column long enough. If you have things that you absolutely have put off doing take a mini vacation first and that task will not seem so overwhelming. My de-stresser is imaginary farming. It is silly but it gets the job done. Sometimes silly is the best way to get something done. Now I have procrastinated so long and relaxed long enough that I can’t think of any meaty subject for this column. I’m back to FarmVille. Maybe I’ll see you there.

You know you are getting old when it takes too much effort to procrastinate.” — author unknown

Wells resident Julie Seedorf’s column appears every Monday. Send e-mail to her at thecolumn@bevcomm.net or visit her blog at www.justalittlefluff.blogspot.com.