My ritual when I grind beans is to load them into the hopper with the gate closed, turn on the grinder then open the gate and let the beans fall into the grinder with the burrs already turning. The reason I keep the gate closed is because I'm thinking that beans loaded into a grinder with the gate open and the burrs static is that they wouldn't be ground the same as when the burrs are already turning when they fall in. Is this a logical thing to do or am I being a bit anal? am I making sense.

I actually did the same thing back when I had a Super Jolly and the gate made it easy to do. My K30 Vario also allowed for this, but wasn't as easy, since it offered more resistance opening the gate.

And with drip brews I grind in a similar fashion with the Ditting 1203 currently. I turn it on empty, dump and let it run clear for a split second afterwards, then shut it off, similar to how many cupping labs operate (per a comment from Jim S a while back). I did this mainly because I found the grind more consistent with the darker more developed roasts, compared to dumping it in to a grinder while off then turning it on. Your mileage may vary when it comes to espresso though, it could be a moot point, I never tested anything objective when I did it for espresso, I just did it out of habit.