I always shoot raw, and never bother with a preset white balance. If people are involved, I try to sneak a shot of something white so I can correct WB later in Lightroom. If I'm outdoors, I'll usually set the ISO to 200 or 400, depending on the brightness of the light, because outdoors I'm trying to get animals and macro shots and I want a fast shutter speed. Aperture priority, probably at f8 unless it's overcast I may stop down.
In low light, I use shutter priority to ensure crisp images even if they're a little dark, I can try to brighten them later.
I'll use manual if the conditions necessitate it.
YOU pick YOUR settings based on what YOU are shooting when YOU shoot it. That's how you'll get the images YOU want. And if you're not sure of this, then shoot lots, and it'll come to you.
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