This type of outreach is unpredictable. I never know what the next minute will bring. When the telephone rings, it may be a farmer seeking a solution to a crop problem, a physician requiring additional information on Lyme disease, or a law enforcement officer with a forensic entomology question. There is no question that the best part of a professorial position in entomology is that you get to set your own agenda. Within the broad framework of entomology and your specialty, you have the freedom to decide what's to be done, how to do it, and what to make of it.
Time management is the single most important skill for senior faculty.
There is more to get done than there are hours in the day. Consequently, one must develop a set of priorities, an art that can be difficult to master. When I started graduate school, I thought that memorizing all the Latinized binomens was going to be the biggest challenge. The accuracy of these hinges on identification, and I consider accurate insect identification to be the principal monopoly of the professional entomologist. Perhaps because of this perspective, there have been few surprises.