Wait, you start by trying to find anywhere you can place a 1, then once you've got those you move to 2's and so on and so forth? Like... Just looking at the whole board? You don't break it down and work by sections?
I... I never even considered that approach. I always start with the 3x3 blocks, figuring out what numbers are missing and where they might fit. If I get stumped working blocks, I move on to rows and then columns last.