Many magnetic field sensing applications including orienting and stabilizing aircraft and down-hole drilling machines, as well as field imaging, require the determination of the magnetic field projection along all three spatial directions (X, Y, and Z). Those measurements are time consuming as each projection needs to be measured separately. This invention from the Walsworth lab enables such vector measurements to be performed simultaneously rather than sequentially, leading to a factor of four improvement in speed compared to existing techniques. For Nitrogen-Vacancy (NV) diamond magnetometer this is can be done with a minimal increase in device complexity or device cost. The method works for measuring both bulk and surface properties.