For similar systems I've worked on, I'll use a process id, try/tries and time started as part of the process plucking an item of a db queue table... this way I can have something that resets anything started over N minutes prior that didn't finish, for whatever reason (handling abandoned, broken tasks that are in an unknown state.

One reason to do this for emails, IE a database queue is to keep a log/history of all sent emails, as well as a render for "view in browser" links in the email itself. Not to mention those rare instances where an email platform goes down and everything starts blowing up.