lockstep

an established and often automatic or monotonous series of actions followed when engaging in some activity followed the lockstep that had been in his family for generations: prep school, Ivy League university, job on Wall Street Synonyms drill, grind, groove, routine, pattern, rote, rut, treadmillRelated Words daily dozen, regimen; housekeeping; custom, fashion, habit, practice (also practise), trick, wont; approach, manner, method, procedure, strategy, style, tack, technique, way; design, plan, program, scheme; convention, policy, tradition