This thesis comprises a series of papers addressing the potential and limitations of accurate and precise uranium-lead geochronology of accessory minerals for quantifying the time-scales of a variety of geological processes. The first part consists of three papers focusing on quantifying the time-scales of magmatic processes in some well characterised magmatic systems. By integrating high precision U-Pb geochronology with trace element, oxygen and hafnium isotopic data, we place quantitative constraints on the durations and rates of some important processes in these magmatic systems. The second part comprises two chapters addressing the potential and limitations of high-precision zircon U-Pb geochronology as a tool for calibrating sedimentary records of Earth history. These papers document the present state of the art, various applications and future directions of high-precision U-Pb geochronology by isotope dilution thermal ionization mass spectrometry.