Good optimization techniques/tips

It depends a lot on the patch and what it is you are trying to do, be it audio, MIDI or video processing. One thing to get you started is to remove any GUI objects that you don't need. Lots of people use the [button] object which uses up a little processing power to draw to the screen when something like [t b] would work just as well without the cost. Removing instances of number boxes that aren't used for display or editing is also a good idea although unless you have loads of them in your patch the difference it will make is still quite small. Maybe post some example patches so we can take a look. If you're feeling adventurous you could try to rewrite your patches (or portions of them) in C where you get a whole lot more control!