Before you're going to want to start your game you're going to need to pick your system*. I prefer OSR games as a general rule, both face to face and in pbp, which help to streamline play. OSR games tend to have easy mechanics as well as few character customization options. That makes it really easy to run the game with all of the mechanics "behind the scene"; with the way I run things, making all the rolls, someone without any grasp of the game can play a fighter or thief easily enough.
I also recommend that you go with a system that doesn't require a lot of back and forth to resolve actions, opposed rolls, etc. Given that a single round of combat can take 24 hours to resolve, if you start adding complicated mechanics, back and forth options, and so forth it can really stretch conflicts out.
There are a number of other things I do to help to make the game flow more smoothly, some of which are:
1. Cost of Living. I assume that there's a lump sum of money, paid at the beginning of each month and increasing in amount as the characters increase in level, that covers all of the small, incidental costs (level appropriate). That means the PCs don't have to pay for food and lodging in an inn, or tolls to enter a city, or taxes on their wealth, etc. It's a small thing, but the fact that my players don't have to spend time (ie make posts) asking how many coppers it costs to buy an ale helps to move things along.
2. Standard Operating Procedures. Before we begin play I try to establish some standard procedures that we'll follow when adventuring. The big ones that I can think of right now deal with exploration: whenever the party comes to a door we make the assumption that a thief listens at the door, then checks for traps, then picks the lock, if needed. Chests are always searched for traps before opening. Depending on how combat is going, I will often roll out multiple rounds of combat until something drastic happens (a PC is reduced to low hp, a new enemy joins the battle, etc.).
3. Transparency of Rolls. Since I make all of the rolls in the game I post the rolls for each round in spoilers at the end of each round of combat. I use an online dice roller that lets me post the link to each individual roll. This lets me easily track what is happening in a round as I'm working through it, and gives the players an easy way to double check me in case I make a mistake.
All in all, play by post games work the most smoothly when using games that have simple mechanics and a limited number of character options. Systems that require opposed rolls, have some sort of back and forth resolution system, or otherwise rely on multiple exchanges often slow down play and add to the complexity of running it. This doesn't necessarily mean that crunchy systems are bad and rules-lite systems good, since what is important is the amount of back and forth required to resolve a conflict. A crunchy system could require multiple rolls while a rules-lite system might require multiple back and forth exchanges; both could slow the game down to the same degree.
*Note that I'm making some pretty broad, sweeping statements here that reflect what I have found to be *generally* true. I've seen pbp games that use very complex systems last for years, so it is certainly possible.
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