The molecular cloud lifetime is crucial for understanding the nature of star formation: is it slow and efficient, or rapid and inefficient? I will present the systematic application of the new Kruijssen & Longmore method to homogeneous ALMA observations of star-forming disc galaxies out to 15 Mpc. We constrain the timeline of cloud-scale star formation and feedback, as a function of environment. This settles the long-standing molecular cloud lifetime problem, with future applications to galaxies across cosmic time.