diff --git a/.config/zsh/autoload/git/git-ssync b/.config/zsh/autoload/git/git-ssync
index 3a0d4e4..d3946a6 100755
--- a/.config/zsh/autoload/git/git-ssync
+++ b/.config/zsh/autoload/git/git-ssync
@@ -14,13 +14,8 @@ if [[ "$1" == "--new" ]]; then
 	grep path .gitmodules \
 	| cut -d= -f2 \
 	| sed 's/^\s*//' \
-	| while read -r line; do
-		# keep only empty ones
-		find "$line" -maxdepth 0 -empty
-	done \
-	| while read -r line; do
-		git submodule update --init --recursive -- "$line"
-	done
+	| xargs -I'{}' find '{}' -maxdepth 0 -empty \
+	| xargs -L1 git submodule update --init --recursive --
 else
 	git submodule update --init --recursive
 fi
diff --git a/.local/bin/shcwd b/.local/bin/shcwd
index 6bda419..20e1034 100755
--- a/.local/bin/shcwd
+++ b/.local/bin/shcwd
@@ -7,15 +7,11 @@
 #
 #     pgrep --full "^($TERMINAL|tmux)( |$)" \
 #     	| cut -d' ' -f1 \
-#     	| while read -r line; do
-#     		pgrep -P "$line"
-#     	done \
+#     	| xargs -n1 pgrep -P \
 
 # NOTE: when using the full path not all shell instances are matched
 pgrep "$(basename $SHELL)" \
 	| cut -d' ' -f1 \
-	| while read -r line; do
-		pwdx "$line" 2>/dev/null
-	done \
+	| xargs pwdx 2>/dev/null \
 	| cut -d' ' -f2- \
 	| sort -ur