SEO is the abbreviation of search engine optimazation, which is a kind of technology to promote a site's keywords position before the original campaign on some main search engine like google, yahoo,etc.
Some SEOs may doing their work in a whole moisture, but others SEO may separate into several parts. Copywriting and adding external link is two parts of SEO, which is made up to the most important parts of SEO. The efficiency of the two parts will influence the whole SEO moisture deeply.
Then, how to be more efficient and effective when doing copywriting and and adding extenal link. I like the first thing is to find resources. The speed of finding resources will affect your efficiency. Usually, I suggest you searching resources while doing your copywriting or adding extenal link.
Of course, you should use your order proficiently and learn to combine them. For example, if you want to find some articles about "portable digital camera", your order can be
portable digital camera inurl:article
And if you wanna to find some resources for adding external link. Except for the ordinary order to follow some sites's external link is also a good method.
All in all, if you want to more efficient, you should learn to think and find some method to manage it.