Just like with any data query, it is always a good idea to try and limit the amount of data to retrieve and process. In Watson Analytics for Social Media, to accomplish this you can use the date range, as shown in the following screenshot:
Using date range
To specify a date range, you can click on Dates and specify the time period that you want to retrieve social media content from. The dates and times are inclusive and are in your local time. The earliest starting date that you can choose is restricted in the Start date calendar.
The calendars make it easy to set a start and end date. I've used January 1st to August 3rd:
Calendar displaying start and end dates