I always have my camera set on evaluative and that is perfect for most shots.
If I have a very bright or dark area in the scene that I'm worried will be blown out (overexposed) or too dark to record any detail (underexposed) then I'll dial in exposure compensation.
Occasionally - when I have a dark subject with a bright background that might turn into a silhouette then I'll 'spot meter' by pressing the * button on my camera while pointing the middle of the subject.
If I have a landscape with a bright sky and dull foreground and haven't got any graduated filters handy I'll bracket (take a series of 3 or 5 shots at different shutter speeds to under and over expose the scene) and combine them later in HDR software. A tripod is better for this, but sometimes I hand-hold with the camera on continuous shooting in AEB mode.
If flash is the main light then ETTL normally looks after me fine (sometimes with a little flash exposure compensation - for example a portrait with a mix of daylight and a dab of fill-flash I might dial the flash exposure down a bit -1 or -2 stops)
If studio flash is the main light then I put the camera on manual (ignoring its own metering) and instead use a hand-held flash meter.