If you are shooting jpeg and like to get the best looking results out of the camera, set up Picture Styles for a few shooting scenarios you like to shoot in, such as landscapes, portraits, etc -- get to know those styles and where they might work or where you might want to try something else. For jpeg shooting you also want to use White Balance settings in tricky lighting -- indoors may have tungsten, florescent, or both, and shade can sometimes be tricky. Using either a White Balance preset or a custom white balance can save you grief later. With jpegs, the closest you can get to what you want in the camera means less hassle at the computer -- sharpness, contrast, saturation, etc give you a starting pic which you can then tweak as you wish but you want a minimum of hassle. You should be able to do just about everything in Lightroom you ever need except for some special tasks that image editors are good for.
If shooting Raw, it's a whole different paradigm, because you are bringing something into Lightroom untouched by the in-camera processing and you apply your own touch to making the image all you want it to be.
In Lightroom you can apply presets to Raw shots to emulate camera picture styles or build our own style. Lightroom can play well with both types of shooting and as yo learn, your workflow will develop and you will find yourself less bogged down and more free to pursue creativity instead of the drudgery of some repetitive tasks.
Hope this helps a little!
