What single word could be used in place of "long drawn out procedure"?

I'm thinking of something like ceremony or ritual - but without the implication of significance. More like a large collection of tasks in an everyday context like a meeting or a series of medical procedures, say prior to surgery.

I'm thinking of a word that's not necessarily formal, or that the tasks have to be rigidly adhered to in a specific order. It could just be a large number of a tasks say, a shopkeeper may have to do prior to opening a store say.

An example sentence may be say, the chairperson of a meeting saying:

Please people, we need to keep moving if we want to complete the __________ of this meeting

The closest things I can think of are

• long drawn out procedure - (but a single word with the same meaning as this phrase)

Solution 1:

Perhaps you would like rigmarole. From Cambridge Dictionaries:

a long, complicated, or silly process
You have to go through this whole rigmarole before you can register for a course.

It is also sometimes spelled rigamarole (this is closer to my own pronunciation); Merriam-Webster defines both as

2 : a complex and sometimes ritualistic procedure

While it can be used for purely necessary procedures when they are sufficiently complex, it still carries a definitely pejorative connotation and seems to most often be used for procedures that the speaker considers somehow unnecessary or ridiculous. I think it would work well for your example:

Please people, we need to keep moving if we want to complete the rig(a)marole of this meeting.

An example of a similar usage found on the world-wide web:

If you feel that the meeting has become a boring rigmarole that you have to go through each week or month, take a look at these tips for injecting energy and effectiveness into the time you spend with your team. ("Top tips for running the most effective facilities meeting possible", Catch22, Jan. 24, 2018)

Solution 2:

You might consider drudgery for this.

It's not an exact fit, but it has the right connotation, given its meaning:

From Oxford:

drudgery
noun [mass noun]

Hard menial or dull work.

It is possible for work to be hard and/or dull due to its length and not its actual difficulty. Therefore, a meeting could be a drudgery, or the contents of it can be a drudgery, if the meeting draws out long. The word fits in your sentence as well:

Please people, we need to keep moving if we want to complete the drudgery of this meeting.