A new method has been used to measure nuclear lifetimes in the picoseconds range by direct electronic timing. This was made possible by using a centroid shift measurement without the problem of electronic drifting, and an efficient and accurate way of measuring walk effects. The coincidence events were between a beta particle and a gamma ray. The half-lives of the first excited state of Fe56, the first excited state of Hg198, and the third excited state of Fe56, were found to be 5.7±2 ps., 21.313 ps., and 30±3ps. respectively. The first two measurements agree with previous values reported in the literature and the third has not been measured before.