Tomatoes getting ripe - while the plant starts to die

The tomato plant, especially in places where summer can be quite harsh, has a quick end. Constant watering can only keep the plant alive for so long. The plant goes through a point where the fruits are starting to turn yellow / red and slowly ripen; while the leaves are starting to dry up. The struggle is that the plant is dying while we are waiting to collect the fruit. Now, if we are doing this professionally, then there is a proper process to collect all the tomatoes as they ripen, maintain them with all the proper process and so on. However, doing this on a terrace garden means that one is a part-time gardener and one can only spend so much time on the plants, so it's good to get such a harvest.