I get open notifications from myself - how can I stop them?

While blocking IP does work for filtering notifications, the open count on the email continues to increment for each time I open the email. Additionally, it increments multiple times while I am working in the email, e.g. sending a follow-up to an email within my sent items that I did not receive a response for. While drafting my last email it incremented 12 times as I was drafting the follow-up.
Cheers
Douglas