So, you need it to run faster

Basic steps:

• Is the hardware and OS working together and tuned?
   
• Is the database system configured correctly? Is is taking advantage of all resources?
   
• Is this a typical query, or unusual enough to get special treatment (e.g. changing parameters) [bulk loads]
   
• Is there anything else running on the system, even other database connections, that may affect the results?
   
• Is the schema sound? Is everything normalized?
   
• Have the relevant tables been vacuumed and analyzed recently? Do you have a regular plan?
   
• Have you considered the effect of triggers, plans, foreign keys, and functions?
   
• Do you know the exact business requirements of the query? Do you really need all the information (and every column) it is bringing back?
   
• Is it just this query that is slow, or all queries in general?
   
• Final step: run EXPLAIN and EXPLAIN ANALYZE to see under the hood

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