Ignatius of Loyola sets out the Examen as the first of the exercises in his Spiritual Exercises, a short manual of structured prayer and meditation composed for use under the guidance of a director, and gives it a fixed sequence of five movements. The reciter first gives thanks for the benefits received that day, then asks for grace to know and reject whatever sins are found in the review that follows, then reviews the day hour by hour, or period by period, noting thoughts, words and deeds, then asks pardon for the faults that review has surfaced, and finally resolves, with God's help, to amend what needs amending in the time still remaining. Each step is brief; the whole exercise is meant to take a matter of minutes rather than an extended period of contemplation.
That brevity was deliberate and practical rather than a lesser form of prayer. Ignatius instructed that the Examen be preserved even on days when the longer meditations of the Exercises had to be shortened or dropped for lack of time, treating it as the one non-negotiable element of daily spiritual practice for those following his method. Its influence extended well beyond the Jesuit order Ignatius founded; variations of the same structured daily review, thanksgiving before confession, examination before resolution, have been adapted across other strands of Christian devotional practice, and the term Examen itself has entered wider use as shorthand for any structured daily self-review conducted as prayer rather than as private reflection alone.