Spotlight shortcut not working within an app(s) anymore I love the spotlights cmd + space functionality to start apps. Half of the time now the spotlight isn't working for me. I'm on 10.9.2 if that matters.

Say I'm in Chrome and want to open Word, for example. I hit cmd+space and... Chrome scrolls one page down. This is not just Chrome issue, if I'm using Wunderlist for example (another app) cmd + space doesn't do anything. I have to hit it 3-4 times to get spotlight open.

How can I get cmd + space functionality back? Its super quick way to launch apps and I miss it.

EDIT: Is there a quicker way to open an app with keyboard shortcuts? I'm slowly giving up on the spotlight. :(
Have you tried changing your Spotlight shortcuts? You can set the spotlight shortcuts (or any others) to whatever feels good for you. 

Apple menu &gt; System Preferences &gt; Keyboard &gt; Shortcuts &gt; Spotlight


Click the shortcut you want to change, then tap the new shortcut keys on your keyboard.

A quicker way to launch commonly used applications would be to set a shortcut to launch a specific app. to do this, create an automator script to launch the application then set a shortcut to run the script. Here's a tutorial that explains how to do it. 
https://computers.tutsplus.com/tutorials/how-to-launch-any-app-with-a-keyboard-shortcut--mac-31463