What Should You Do When Stuck on a Physics Problem?

[Kinermatics]

I apologize if this is in the wrong sections. But you guys seem to know your stuff when it comes to physics and math. My question is, when you are doing physics or math related homework and you've stumbled upon a problem you can't seem to figure out... what do you do? My problem is that I want to try to grind through a problem without any help from external resources. But at the same time I can't spend to much time trying to figure it out. What would you guys recommend? I've read that the more you try to work through a problem without any help, the better your problem solving skills. Unfortunately there are times (you know what I mean) when you can't seem to get a problem no matter what...and when you finally give up and look at the answer and see how to do the problem you always can't help but think "I wouldn't have figured that out myself". I'm all ears

 

[JHamm]

Coming up with an answer yourself does develop your skills far better than reading somebody else's solution, but you won't be learning anything if you can't solve it.
One thing you can do though is post your question and ask that you be given just small hints or pushes here and there, a compromise between just looking up the answer and struggling through a problem you might not be able to solve.