Methods, systems, and devices for wireless communication are described. A user equipment (UE) may transmit uplink (UL) messages in unlicensed spectrum with a reduced UL timing delay. The UL timing delay may be reduced by using a shortened transmission time interval (TTI) (e.g., a TTI that is reduced in duration relative to other TTIs in the system or in a legacy system) or by reducing the number of TTIs between a grant and the corresponding UL message. The reduced UL timing delay may decrease the likelihood that the UE will wait for a subsequent transmit opportunity (TxOp) to transmit the UL message. In some cases, the reduced UL timing delay corresponds to a reduced hybrid automatic repeat request (HARM) processing delay. In some cases, a time difference (e.g., measured in TTIs) between a measurement reference TTI a corresponding channel state information (CSI) report may also be reduced.