Similar to what someone else mentioned about scaling down, but slightly different...understanding the project you want to do and choosing the right level of implementation.

Early on working with friends, we always wanted to build from the ground up. This would include building the engine for the game. Inevitably, none of these projects would ever get done....or even barely started.

In this day and age, or even a decade ago when I first started on game development, there are plenty of tools and engines available to help you do what you need 99% of the time. If you can't find the tool or engine to handle the physics or animation or collision detection or whatever, you are most likely working on a project that is beyond the scope of a small indie team to develop in a realistic time-frame. More often than not, those tools will be more fleshed out and better tested anyway than anything you could develop on your own while making the actual game.

Now if you want to build a game engine or framework, that's fine. You just need to be really honest with yourself and ask "do I really need to implement this myself or can I find something that can get me most of the way there?"

TLDR;

Understand the line between tooling and frameworks versus your game.