Play a real-life retail stock-boy with a mobile app, then get paid.

Are we most content doing the smallest imaginable tasks? Mobile apps can apparently make even the most insignificant market cog-work into a fun sort of game, especially if you’re getting paid. For a story, this Wall Street Journal columnist became a freelance mobile stock-boy—and liked it.

This week, I earned a little dough on the side using an iPhone and two free apps: EasyShift and Gigwalk. The idea behind the apps work is simple: Companies hire you to do some pretty simple work using your iPhone. You submit the work using these apps and you get paid via your PayPal account.

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These jobs can become addicting really quickly. The tasks I completed were easy and some were even fun, like answering a few questions and taking photos of energy drinks at CVS for $2. I found myself scouring the apps’ built-in maps for nearby jobs as I drove around Washington, D.C., where I live. In cases when the job felt more like work than fun, I got paid enough that I didn’t mind ($8 for taking seven simple photos). I was startled by how much pride I took in doing the task correctly—all for a few bucks and a good reputation within the app’s community, which can lead to higher-paying jobs.