In an aspect, a user equipment (UE) may receive an uplink (UL) grant (e.g., dynamic UL grant, UL configured grant (CG)) from a network, but may decide to skip the UL grant altogether or not transmit any user plane data on the UL grant. In such instances, the UE may maintain or expedite expiration associated with one or more timers (e.g., discontinuous reception (DRX) and bandwidth part (BWP) inactivity timers, secondary cell (SCell) deactivation timer, etc.). The UE may also maintain or expedite expiration associated with one or more timers if it receives downlink (DL) transmission (e.g., DL semi-persistent scheduling (SPS)) from the network that includes no user plane data.