The first option is to select one of the built-in options (1), such as Today, Last 7 days, Year to date, etc...
These date ranges are dynamic. That is, they will automatically update as time passes. As such, they are very useful. For example, you could create a report with a filter for Last week. No matter when you open this report (or when it runs as part of a schedule), the filter will dynamically adjust to always show the previous week's data.