The best way to find something is to stop looking for it

Lost a puzzle piece, or your car keys?

Surprisingly, the best way to find something is to stop looking for it. Here's why: 

If whatever you've lost is hiding in an obvious place, you would have found it already.

So the fact that you can't find it, means it's hiding in a non-obvious place.

So it's going to take creativity to find it!  And your creativity works best when you are relaxed.

But if you've been looking for something for 10 minutes, you are not relaxed.  You are worked-up and getting anxious and annoyed.   You are in no shape to be your free spirited, creative, and ready to see things from a fresh or unusual perspective.  In fact all those negative emotions practically give you tunnel vision!

By ceasing to look for the object, your mind can relax and de-stress, and it can get out of the way of your subconscious mind that will continue to mull over the problem with its more creative, associative network. 

Some people say "Give your problem up to Jesus" or "Now let God take a turn", and this is a similar strategy: "Give your problem up to your subconscious."

Ideally you could do both, but sadly not everyone has a reliable God, and some folks don't have a reliable subconscious either, which leads us to another awesome trick: ask someone else to look.

It's not that your wife or neighbor or kid is always better at finding things, but they won't have the preconceptions you have that are blocking you from seeing what you lost. And to them it's just a fun game to see if they can find it first, and a low-stakes game will turn on the creative floodlights for them, and they won't be misled by all the incorrect things you think you know.

So go ahead and have a good look first yourself! Maybe it *is* right where you left it!  Look everywhere you can think, be systematic, be rational!

But if you still can't find it, get yourself a fresh perspective by leaving the room and entering it from a different angle, lie down on the floor or stand on a chair to get a new perspective, and ask yourself silly questions like "If I were my car keys where would I be hiding?" 

But once you get to the stage of frustration, walk off the stage: call a friend (surprisingly, even by phone or VC your friend might be able to help!), take a walk outside, or set it aside until the morning, and let your God or your subconscious or your neighbor reveal it to you when they are ready!